


Fusion Redemption

by BlueLightningAndNexus



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Implied Amethyst/Peridot (Steven Universe), Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:06:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 33,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23215237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueLightningAndNexus/pseuds/BlueLightningAndNexus
Summary: Cross-posted from Wattpad.Set in an AU where Peridot, Jasper and Lapis all joined the Crystal Gems midway through Season 1. All is well, and for all intents and purposes, they're a massive family. But even families have problems.Each chapter focuses on a new fusion. Note, this was written back in 2016, so many of the fusion names are horribly outdated, and other Gems in canon have these names instead.
Relationships: Ruby/Sapphire (Steven Universe)
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1: Moonstone

Pearl walked into the house after grocery shopping. Now that Steven had introduced the three new gems to food, all three have slowly become fascinated and intrigued by it. As a result, the grocery bill for the month nearly doubled.

But that's fine. With three new recruits, the Crystal Gems can earn money twice as fast now preforming a variety of odd jobs in town. Beach City might be small and compact, but even it was with its own fair share of problems and situations. Pearl and Steven's favorite task was to baby sit some of the smaller kids while their parents were away. Steven especially enjoyed playing with Onion, and Pearl loved to watch the newborns. It reminded her of when she, Garnet, Amethyst and Greg were all co-raising Steven as an infant.

Pearl looked over to the couch and found Steven fast asleep. It was almost noon, and he did stay up all night watching Dog-copter with Lapis and Amethyst. She set the groceries on the table and walked by Amethyst playing a video game with Jasper.

"Hello guys," said Pearl. Jasper paused the game and walked over to Pearl, who had since taken a seat on the couch. "Is something wrong Pearl?" asked Amethyst as she and Jasper fell on the couch next to her.

"I'm just kind of stressed. It feels so much harder to man a house with seven people, eight if you count Ruby and Sapphire, instead of four." She turned to Jasper, who had an apologetic look on her face. "It's not your fault Jasper. It's just everything that's happened recently." Pearl wouldn't let Jasper take the blame for this, knowing that she was still haunted by her former loyalty towards Yellow Diamond, and knowing that Jasper was still troubled by the "Malachite incident" which left her relationship with the Gems and Lapis strained.

Jasper gave a doubting look. She was still aggressive as ever, prone to violence, and extremely irritable. But, like Peridot and Lapis before her, Jasper's love for Steven and troubled past made the Crystal Gems welcoming and sympathetic. Jasper had surprisingly bonded with Amethyst in the last three months out of their similarities and Quartz-Gem status.

Pearl walked across the warp-pad and to the universal door to the Crystal Gem's respective rooms. Since the introduction of three new members, the star that opens to each Gem's room has now been updated; it includes a triangle of Lapis, Peridot and Jasper's gems for their rooms in the center of the star.

Pearl leaned down, showing her gem to the star, and the door opened, leading to her room. She walked into her room, and wasn't surprised to find Peridot there ravaging through her weapon stockpile, though it did annoy her.

"Peridot!" she screeched. Peridot let out a yelp of surprise and almost fell down, before regaining her composure. "Sorry," said the green gem politely. "I was just looking for supplies for my latest invention. I overheard you tell Garnet you would be back at 1, so I didn't think you would mind if I retrieved some scrap metal for my latest project."

Pearl was somewhat stunned at the green gems borderline-timid reaction. Since Peridot's full acceptance into the ground and Lapis joining the team, she has become much more polite and accepting towards the other Gems now that she considers them friends and family.

"I'm terribly sorry," said Pearl, "I didn't mean to snap... I guess I lost my temper."

"Yeah you should be," said Peridot with a joking snicker. Pearl rolled her eyes at the Gem's immaturity and jumped up to one of the fountains that made up her room. "Don't you have plenty of scrap metal from your own room?" asked Pearl. Since the former Homeworld Gem's acceptance into the Crystal Gems, she had constructed her own room into one of the abandoned caves. Lapis and Jasper followed her precedent quickly.

Peridot's room was so complex, she was the only one who could truly understand it: the upper layer was filled with chalkboards, Promethean boards, and whiteboards with scribbled formulas and ideas on them. Peridot had taken the liberty of raiding the gems storage space for desks, which she neatly lined the room with. Each desk had a variety of planning information in it and some convenient items, such as notebooks, pen and paper. Her lower layer was far less light and welcoming, and it was filled with inventions that were either half-finished or completely abandoned in a complex and miscellaneous pile only her mind could understand. Surely there had to be some metal she could salvage, right?

"Actually...no. See, a lot of my inventions go to waste or rot down there, but lately, I've been trying to construct a massive EMP device that could shut down Gem technology in the area, and double as a backup Laser Light Cannon. It's extremely complex, and most of my recent inventions have been stripped down to scrap and built into it because of its size." Pearl smirked and replied with "Sounds like someone's bragging."

Nevertheless, despite her and Peridot's jokes, Pearl found this description agreeable, and knowing how getting scrap metal from her room would be more convenient then the barn, Pearl allowed Peridot to use some scrap metal from the Robonoid Disrupter. Peridot put some of the scrap metal in a wooden box and carried it outside Pearl's room through a doorway in one of her fountains.

___________________________

Amethyst woke up from her nap on the couch, feeling less refreshed then before. She got up right next to Steven who was just starting to wake up himself. "Good morning sleepyhead," she said half-asleep. Amethyst woke up faster than he did, being a Gem and not needing sleep as a physical requirement.

Amethyst grunted and walked towards the door, intending to go back to sleep in the peace of her room. She revealed the amethyst gemstone on her chest. The door glowed purple and opened, but she found Peridot and Garnet on the other end; basically, the opposite of peace. "Amethyst, we need your help," said Peridot flatly. Garnet handed over a dark, navy blue bubble with three separate shattered gems; a Lapis Lazuli bubble.

"Hey, this looks kinda like the Rose Quartz bubble me and Pearl accidentally popped a while back," said Amethyst. "It's a similar concept," said Garnet. Jasper and Steven walked through the still-open door to Amethysts room to see what was going on. Jasper looked over at the bubble and the shattered gems and explained the situation: "These monsters increase the size of their form by absorbing liquids, so Garnet assigned Steven to deliver it to Lapis."

"But isn't Lapis's room, like, made of water." said Amethyst dumbfounded. "Exactly," replied Peridot, "so if they got out, like what happened with you and Pearl a while ago, then Lapis would be able to control them and, worst case scenario, she would have the proper arsenal to defeat them independently."

"But how do you know that," said Steven confused. Jasper shrugged and replied with "I was with her on the mission where we found this." "Can you come Jasper?" asked Steven innocently. Jasper looked around the room, before flatly stating "I got nothing better to do."

The five gems split up, with Peridot walking down one path with Garnet, and Steven walking down the other with Amethyst and Jasper.

Peridot and Garnet were walking down the opposite path to Peridot's room. Garnet began to walk to her chambers, The Burning Room, before Peridot called for her. "Garnet," asked the green gem. "I need to collect some bubbled shards for my device." Garnet suspiciously raised an eyebrow.

"See," explained Peridot, "I figured that since the original Laser Light Cannon's that once belonged to Rose Quartz were powered by her energy, if I harnessed the power of the bubbled gems while still keeping them bubbled, I could produce a similar result with my cannon."

"Peridot," said Garnet while putting a hand on the other gems shoulder, "I'm gonna put this bluntly: I don't think this is a good idea, not because I don't trust you, but because those gems are unstable."

Peridot nodded, but continued: "I fully agree, but I think you're wrong: we need a line of defense besides the Light Cannons that doesn't involve use of our physical strengths."

Garnet thought about this, before consulting her Future Vision. After a moments consideration while gazing into the future and finding possibilities, she relented: "I will allow you to do it, but you need my supervision."

"Deal," agreed Peridot.

Peridot and Garnet walked towards the edge of Amethyst's room. Peridot placed her hand against a flat piece of wall and pushed down on it. A small section of the wall opened up vertically, revealing the entrance to Peridot's room. Peridot and Garnet walked into the upper level of her room, before Peridot typed some code into a nearby laptop and moved a desk.

Peridot and Garnet walked to one end of the room. "Go over to that end of the wall," said Peridot pointing in the opposite direction, all while not looking up from the control panel she was prepping. Garnet did as she was told and placed her hand on a nearby lever, than turned to Peridot.

"Okay," said Peridot, before doing the same. "On the count of three, we pull the lever. One...two...three!!"

Both gems pulled the levers at the same time, and a section of the floor opened up. The floor of the lower level of Peridot's room began to rise, and the EMP Cannon rose with it. The machine was attached to a wagon, which in turn was attached to a slot to put a Gem Shard as a power source. Both Peridot and Garnet got on the back of the Cannon, pushed on the rear bumper, and wheeled the EMP Cannon out of Peridot's room, through Amethyst's trail, and into The Burning Room.

Peridot picked a bubble that was attached to a nearby vine, and set it into the slot. Peridot pressed two buttons and flipped a power switch on an attached control panel. The machine began to power up, just as Garnet sensed something through her future vision.

"PERIDOT!!!" she screamed, but it was too late: the axle on the wagon broke, and the Cannon fell down at an angle. The control panel malfunctioned, and the Cannon fired a blast before emitting a massive EMP pulse. Garnet jumped out of the Cannon's range just in time, but the beam hit a wall of the room and a flying piece of debris hit Garnet in the head, knocking her off balance. Multiple bubbled gems fell to the ground, but Peridot managed to fire her force-bubble to contain the fallen bubbles. Unfortunately, she didn't get all of them.

A single green corrupted gemstone fell to the ground out of the reach of Period's force-field bubble, and as soon as it made contact with the hot stone, it began to materialize into a massive snake-like creature that burst though the ground. 

___________________________________

Amethyst and Steven walked in front of Jasper on their way to Lapis's room, with Jasper a few feet behind them. Before long, Jasper stooped walking. Steven took a second, but he soon noticed. "Jasper," asked Steven, "...what's wrong." In a quiet voice, almost a whisper, Jasper said "...Peridot's cannon. I hear it."

Jasper began to listen carefully to the environment around her, before her eyes widened. "GET DOWN" she yelled at Steven, before diving over the path and pulling him and Amethyst away. A serpent-like creature came bursting out of the ground right were Amethyst and Steven would have been.

Jasper instantly summoned her helmet onto her head from the gemstone on her face, and Amethyst pulled her whip out of her gemstone. Both charged at the serpent as Garnet leaped out of the hole.

"Jasper! Amethyst! Retreat! That corrupted gem can take both of you on!" Before he could finish, Jasper leaped at the serpent, but it deflected her by smashing it against a wall with its tail. Amethyst swung at it from a stalactite using her whip, but it head-butted her against a one of the crystal pillars coming from the ground. Peridot flew out of the hole using the helicopter from her limb-enhancers. Peridot distracted the serpent by firing three bolts of energy from her robotic arm-cannon at its eyes. This diversion proved long enough for Garnet to jump on its face. Garnet punched the serpent twice in the eye, and swung around it, before electrocuting it in the mouth. 

The serpent attempted to eat Garnet, but Steven summoned his shield and threw it at the serpent. The shield ricocheted off the serpents face, against a wall and back at its face. Garnet pried open the serpents mouth with her gauntlets, and used Steven's shield to hold its mouth open by placing it between its jaws.

"Jasper, help me!!" Steven shouted. He summoned his shield and threw it against a stalagmite. It buried itself into the stone, and Jasper jumped on the shield, using it as a Launchpad to jump towards the serpent. Jasper head-butted the corrupted gem, stunning it long enough for Amethyst to user her Spin-Dash attack to plunge herself into its chest.

Peridot fired three more shots at the serpent. Amethyst whipped the serpent, and the cord wrapped around its neck. Jasper picked up and threw Amethyst as she was still holding onto the whip, thus further wrapping the whip around the serpent.

Steven summoned another shield, and Peridot jumped on it, giving her the height she needed to throw one of her thermal grenades at the serpent. It had little effect, but Garnet grabbed the other end of Amethysts whip and sent an electric current through it, thus completely shocking the gem monster. The monster collapsed and fell down in the hole into the Burning Chamber.

All five gems stood there, panting from exhaustion and the sheer rush of combat. Garnet stood there contemplating the monsters survival when a though occurred to her.

"Steven, do you have the Lapis Lazuli bubble!" Steven was about to respond when he turned around to find the Lapis Lazuli bubble had effectively disappeared.

____________________________

Pearl was training in her room when she heard the deafening roar of the EMP Cannon echoed through her fountains. Her room was directly above Garnet's, so the sound reached her much easier than it did Amethyst because there was nearly 15 feet of solid stone between The Burning Chamber and Amethysts room.

This was followed by the cracking of stone and rock, the serpent burrowing its way through the Burning Room. She was about to join them when she saw something interesting: a Lapis Lazuli bubble, with the three shattered gemstones that she and Garnet defeated with Jasper two days ago. It had somehow rolled into her room through on of the rifts between her and Amethysts room.

Pearl instinctively checked the bubble to make sure it wasn't cracked or damaged. She couldn't take the risk of re-bubbling it as her entire room consisted of fountains and lakes. Pearl turned her attention to the gate at the far end of her room that led to Lapis's, and she made her way across.

After Jasper, Lapis and Peridot decided they wanted their own personal rooms, all rooms were constructed within a certain radius of another room: one of Rose's armories near the Burning Room was converted into Jasper's personal room; Peridot's room became an abandoned tunnel in Amethysts room; and Lapis's room became the river that flowed into Pearl and Amethysts room.

Pearl opened the gate with her left hand as she delicately held the Lapis Lazuli bubble with her dominant right hand. Pearl walked through the dark, nearly lifeless tunnel between her and Lapis's room as she followed the sound of rushing water.

Pearl finally made her way out of the tunnel and came into Lapis's room: it was a wide area built on the bank of the river, with stone pathways and dams that act as bridges across the river, and a variety of desks piled against the wall, each filled with a variety of Homeworld Archives and studies. Balls of water and liquid were suspended above the river in decoration. The only problem was that Lapis was nowhere to be seen.

Pearl turned around suddenly. She heard something. Quiet sobs...Lapis?

Pearl walked along the bridge across the river and onto the other side of the flowing water. She found the compartment where Lapis stored her weapons, and opened it with one hand. In it one Lapis, back against the cold, wet stone and curled up in a ball. Completely forgetting how fragile the bubble was, Pearl instantly dropped and dashed across, sliding close to Lapis and pulling her into a warm hug as Lapis sobbed into her shoulder.

After many minutes of silence, Pearl innocently and quietly asked "do you wanna talk about it?" It was silent for a moment as a new batch of warm tears rolled down Lapis's face. She finally said, "I feel guilty."

Pearl looked at Lapis shocked; surely, there was no one in this house who was so dedicated to protecting Steven, being responsible and trying to maintain peace. It might have seemed slightly aggressive or irritable, but Pearl couldn't help but raise her voice in emotion. "How can you say that!"

It was dead quiet except for Pearl's heavy breaths. Lapis broke the silence with one word, a whisper: "...Malachite."

Pearl fell silent once more. She tried to think of something, anything convincing to assure Lapis. Nothing came to mind, and her normally sympathetic and comforting consciousness fell empty in this situation. Lapis's voice rung in the compact room: "I know what you're thinking: how can Lapis feel guilty for something that she didn't do. She wasn't responsible for the Malachite incident."

"Exactly," said Pearl with assurance and authority. "BUT YOU'RE WRONG!" Lapis screeched. "I allowed Jasper to fuse with me, and Malachite was born as a result. I pulled Jasper into it by force, held our fusion together with negative willpower and anger, and, for all intents and purposes, tortured her by keeping her in the fusion. I'm a monster."

Pearl was stunned, shocked. She couldn't confirm or deny what Lapis was saying, whether it was due to kinship in the Crystal Gems, or because she didn't want to believe one of the Gems members was a "monster".

Lapis continued. "I know that Amethyst and Jasper both think negatively of me. And I know that Steven still has nightmares about the time I stole the ocean...about the time I nearly drowned him and Connie."

Pearl looked at Lapis stunned, wondering how Lapis could know this. She explained, "Ever since Steven found out he could communicate with Malachite through his dreams, we have a permanent psychic link. I know when he was nightmares, and I have a vague idea on what its about."

Pearl grabbed onto two stone ledges on the wall and pulled herself up, weak from despair and revelation. She held out her hand to a crying Lapis, who looked up at Pearl with sadness and depression. Pearl muttered in a soothing voice, "Fuse with me Lapis".

Lapis jumped in the air and screamed with terror and offense. "Why would you say that!!? After everything I've been through! Everything I just told you!"

Pearl stepped towards a shaking and crying Lapis. "Lapis, I'm not asking you to fuse with me for any punishment or mocking. I want you to know you aren't alone."

Lapis looked at Pearl, then at her extended hand, and back at Pearl. Finally, she took the hand. She accepted the offer. 

__________________________________

Steven, Garnet and Amethyst sat down on the picnic blanket Steven had set on the beach. The three gems sat on the blanket and watched as Pearl and Lapis bowed to one-another. The dance had begun.

Pearl had the first motion; she bent her elbows in a perfect 90-degree angle as she extended her arms upwards. Her hands touched as she did this motion, and she lifted her left foot and twirled around in place. Lapis darted forward, methodically moving her feet one in front of the other. Lapis and Pearl spun around each other, before Pearl lifted Lapis's hand and twirled her around. They switched positions by moving counter-clockwise, and Lapis dipped Pearl, who had a wide smile on her face.

Lapis lifted Pearl up and twirled her. With every motion of their feet, more light appeared, until both gems were consumed in a nearly blinding flash of light. From the light emerged a new gem. 

Steven looked magnificently delighted, Garnet looked excited beyond belief, and Amethyst looked stunned. Steven had the first word: "Giant Woman!!!"

"What is your name," asked Garnet. "I... I am Moonstone," she replied in a soothing voice. There were no words to truly describe Moonstone. She was magnificent and elegant and... beautiful. Moonstone turned her attention to the view of the magnificent and amazing ocean.

"So this is what fusion feels like," she said as she looked down at her large hands. Moonstone truly was beautiful; her form resembled Rainbow Quartz's, the fusion of Pearl and Rose Quartz, both in size and characteristics.

Moonstone was tall, pale and slender, all traits derived from Pearl, and she had Pearl's long, pointed nose. Moonstone dressed in a light blue dress, with four straps of varying grey and blue crisscrossing across Lapis's gemstone halfway down her spine. She had loose lace extending from the base of the dress and flowing down to her feet. Her light grey hair was a combination of Lapis's flowing medium-length hair with a point at the end, and it had multiple white and blue streaks in her hair. Her limbs were slim and slender, and her skin was pale as snow.

"I've... I've never felt so...comforted," said Moonstone. She closed her eyes and allowed for a dark grey light to consume her from her head to her feet. When the light cleared, Lapis was standing there holding Pearl in a ballerina position. The two opened their eyes, and a smile creeped onto Lapis's face before Pearl pulled her into a hug.


	2. Chapter 2: Jade

Peridot and Garnet were assessing the situation inside The Burning Room. The serpent monster's burrowing combined with the EMP Cannons malfunction caused the room to partially collapse.

Garnet began removing the rubble gathered outside the Room. She assigned Peridot to help her because she was indirectly responsible, but she didn't care if she handled the majority of the work; she just wanted some company. Despite this, she sensed a disturbance in Peridot.

"Peridot, somethings wrong." It wasn't a question; it was a statement.

"It's nothing relevant to the current situation," said Peridot flatly. Garnet wouldn't have it. She turned her whole body towards Peridot and walked towards her. She sat down on a piece of rubble next to the one Peridot was sitting on and looked at her. "Peridot, what's on your mind?"

Peridot sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "I'm rather envious of Lazuli and Pearl. Their friendship has expanded since last night, and their bond is closer now that they have the co-existing relationship of Moonstone." It was silent until Peridot repeated, "I'm envious."

Garnet placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and spoke in a calm, soothing voice. "Not every fusion is a representation of a friendship. Every fusion is personal in some way. Take Amethyst and I: our fusion, Sugilite, is a combination of her recklessness and my brashness, so she is destructive and rampaging and we have effectively benched her for this reason. But since Pearl has helped Amethyst work through the sadness of Amethysts Kindergarten origins, their fusion, Opal, is more natural and a stronger fusion."

Garnet and Peridot sat in silence, both contemplating Garnets words and the others reaction. Finally, Peridot asked an important question: "Does your offer still stand?"

Garnet looked puzzled. "What offer?" she asked. Peridot's voice seemed more timid: "From one earth year ago. The offer of fusing with me."

Garnet had a smile on her lips as she replied "Well, I suppose if it bothers you so much, we could show you fusion."

Garnet and Peridot stood in the space between the Warp Pad and the door. They bowed to one another as their gems glowed red and green respectively, and the dance had begun. Steven watched from the wooden chair in the corner.

Garnet had the first motion, placing her hands in front of her, shuffling her feet, extending her hands, turning around, and moving her hands left and right. Peridot shuffled her feet in a similar motion to Garnet, turned 90 degrees and side-stepped towards Garnet. Garnet took Peridot's extended hand and put her free hand on Peridot's hip as Peridot put her free hand on Garnet's shoulder. They shuffled left, right, forwards and backwards before Garnet spun Peridot around her, wrapped her arm around her, and released her. They were consumed in a green and white light that shrunk down until it was the size of a softball.

Steven stood up from his seat and approached the orb of light, worried that something had gone wrong during the fusion. Suddenly, their fusion leaped out of the tiny orb of light, turned around multiple times in midair in a flipping motion, and she turned backwards multiple times in the air, all while shouting in enthusiastic glee. She landed on the ground with two of her four fists on the ground, her free legs extended to her left, one knee on the ground, and her other leg behind her in a crouched position.

Steven looked at the fusion in awe, eyes wide with stars. "What's your name?"

The fusion looked at him with a smile on her face. "I am Jade," she said with a grin of delight. Jade was a remarkable fusion: she was taller than Garnet by about four feet, roughly the height of Opal, and she was extremely muscular. She wore a green armor-like suit made up of metallic panels that appeared like a combination of Garnet's outfit and Peridot's technologically advanced limb-enhancers. She had four arms and two green eyes. She wore a clear triangular visor similar to Sardonyx's circular one, and her weapon was four gauntlets, one for each hand, with technological modifications on them similar to Peridot's limb-enhancers that allowed her to fire projectiles. Her entire outfit was dark green with black and light green highlights.

Jade looked down at the gauntlets on her hands, amazed at the detail on them. She finally spoke, her voice booming with delight: "It's been so long since I've felt so...so...powerful!!"

Jade looked back at Steven, whose face was consumed by a massive grin of delight that two of his moms had fused for the first time ever, and not even 24 hours after Moonstone appeared for the first time. Jade compared the power of this fusion to the power of Garnet fusing with Pearl to make Sardonyx, and of Peridot's authoritative personality back on Homeworld.

Jade closed her eyes and realized how the quality of life as improved so much since those times, and allowed her components to defuse. This was an experience neither Peridot nor Garnet would forget anytime soon.


	3. Chapter 3: Fluorite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit, rereading this makes me realize how bad it is. In my defense I was 14 when I wrote it. 
> 
> Oh well.

Amethyst and Peridot had the nightly shift on the Barn. Ever since the EMP Cannon backfired and was all but destroyed, Peridot and Pearl have been trying to repair it using supplies at the Barn. The only problem was that the creatures that were unleashed in the Burning Room had taken to roaming around the Barn, so Peridot and Pearl have been taking shifts to watch the Barn with the help of Lapis, Garnet and Amethyst.

Peridot had activated her gemstones Photokinesis, allowing her the triangular gemstone on her forehead to emit a beam of green light to help search for lurking gemstone monsters. She didn't see anything, but was sure that monsters were in the area. Amethyst interrupted her train of thought.

"So, Peridot, I've heard from Steven that you and Garnet fused last night."

Peridot deactivated her Photokinesis so as to not distract Amethyst while they talked. She turned to her and "grinned like a geek" as Amethyst called it. "Yeah, I shared my envy of Lazuli and Pearl's companionship, which itself had been strengthened by the presence of Moonstone, and Garnet offered to fuse with me. We already had tried some time ago, but this was the first successful fusion."

"So what was it like?" asked Amethyst while leaning her back against the barn wall. Peridot's homemade limb-enhancers had almost all the properties of her old ones, but they didn't add much height, so when Peridot sat down on the stack of hay next to Amethyst, Peridot still had to look up at her.

Peridot sighed and explained it to Amethyst. "Oh it was wonderful Amethyst. I wish you could've been there to see Jade. It felt great to be so powerful, a-and so courageous a-and so...fearless."

Amethyst assumed Jade was the fusion of Garnet and Peridot that she was referring to, and pondered what Jade must have looked like and what her weapon was.

Of course, Amethyst knew what it was like to fuse with Garnet, but in a less fortunate way. She looked at the sky and pondered about the subject. Their fusion, Sugilite, was so hard to control that when she was first introduced to Steven, she had gone berserk. Despite this, she could feel how brave Garnet was and how strong it felt to be her. It seems that Garnet has that effect on all gems; Amethyst overheard Pearl tell Garnet that when they fused to make Sardonyx, Pearl could also feel the confidence and power in being Garnet.

"So, P, what was Jade's weapon? And what did she look like?" asked Amethyst whilst sitting down next to her. "Well, Jades weapon was a combination of my limb-enhancers with Garnet's gauntlets. It was two pairs of gauntlets, one for each of her four hands, which had mechanical upgrades on them that allowed Jade to potentially fire a variety of projectiles, such as bladed discs and laser bolts."

Amethyst pondered the gauntlets when Peridot continued on. "Jade dressed in a dark green outfit, similar in shape to Garnet's, but it had metallic plates and streaks on their similar to my outfit, and her outfit also had black and light green highlights all across it."

Considering this, it came as no surprise to Amethyst as to why Steven was so excited about another "Giant Woman"; Jade sounded magnificent. Amethyst was viciously yanked of her train of thought when Peridot screeched, "Amethyst, look!!"

Amethyst turned her head from the sky to the trail in front of her, and saw a massive, bird-like corrupted gem hovering in the sky. It briefly landed on the ground before using it as a launching pad. The bird jumped off the ground, soaring 15 feet in the air in the process, and extended its wings, flying above the barn.

Peridot looked at what it was with wide eyes, each filled with fear. But Amethyst grinned. This was a perfect time to stretch their legs. Amethyst stood up and held out her hand to Peridot, who looked at it confused. "What are you doing," she said in an annoyed voice.

Amethyst voice was filled with determination as she spoke, "Let's fuse." Peridot looked enthusiastically at Amethyst, then at her hand, then at the monster in the sky, before taking Amethysts hand. Amethyst pulled Peridot on her feet, and had the first motion: she twirled Peridot, let go of her so Peridot walked backwards, and sidestepped towards her. Peridot excitedly grabbed Amethysts hand and allowed Amethyst to dip her.

A pillar of light emerged from where they were standing. Lapis, Pearl and Garnet ran out to investigate, to find an entirely new fusion...

She had roughly the same muscular build as Sugilite, and she was taller than Rainbow Quartz, but not as tall as Sardonyx. Her voice spoke of excitement and action: "I am Fluorite."

Fluorite dressed in a purple and yellow outfit with green highlights. Her back was lined with stripes of all three colors, and a large yellow star was on her chest, with a smaller, green star inside of it. Two of the tips of the yellow star extended outwards and along her arms. She had a light green rectangular visor. She had two purple and green metallic gloves on her hands. Fluorite summoned her weapons: two whips made of energy and electricity that extended from her knuckles.

Fluorite turned her attention to the gem monster in the sky. She flicked her wrists in a circular motion, causing her the two whips to wrap around her gloves. "Time to catch me a monster," said Fluorite with confidence as she stretched her arms over her head. As Garnet, Pearl and Lapis watched in awe, Fluorite charged at the corrupted gem.

The monster turned around to find Fluorite right behind her. Fluorite, with a large grin on her face, flicked her right wrist, and the energy whip became undone from her arm. Fluorite whipped the energy cord at the monsters legs and pulled her back. Fluorite grabbed the monsters neck, jumped in the air, and slammed the corrupted gem into the ground and the monsters body instantly degenerated.

Garnet, Lapis and Pearl ran over to examine the damage, only to find Fluorite towering over the gem monster. Fluorite unfused in a puff of smoke, and Peridot was left standing there, holding Amethyst in a dancing position. Peridot's face was consumed with a wide grin, and she hugged Amethyst. Amethyst lifted Peridot up, and the two of the started spinning around. Amethyst finally looked at Peridot and pulled her into a big hug.

Peridot slipped out of Amethysts hug and held up the dark orange gem of the corrupted gem monster they just defeated, which she then bubbled. Once more, a grin came across Peridot's face as she said, "You know Amethyst, fusing with Garnet is fun and all...but I think I enjoyed this more."

"I think so too," said Amethyst with a smile on her face. Garnet appeared behind them and stated "I heard that." All three gems broke into laughter.


	4. Chapter 4: Olivine

Steven was meditating at the petal tree with Pearl, the same tree that she demonstrated how to wield his weapon over a year ago, when Peridot arrived. 

"You asked me to meet you here earlier this morning," Peridot said upon arrival. "What's the situation."

"Peridot!" said Steven with enthusiasm. He jumped up from his meditating position against the base of the tree and sprinted towards Peridot, jumping into her arms to hug her and nearly knocking her back in the process.

Pearl stood up from her meditation spot under the tree, using a tree branch to support her and help pull her up. She walked towards Peridot, then gestured towards the still-hugging Steven. "Steven thought that you might want to join us in our training session today."

"Why," said Peridot confused at the young gems logic. "Well," said Pearl, contemplating Steven's reason while putting a hand to her chin, "I suppose he-" but Steven cut her off. "I figured that since you train with Pearl every other day, and I have practice combat sessions with her, then we should just all train together."

"That would be a far more efficient and effective use of our time..." said Peridot, calculating her options. After a moment's consideration, she finally said, "Okay, I can join you guys for today."

Peridot and Pearl sat down next to Steven and began meditating.

After 10 minutes Pearl got up and reached her hands out to Steven and Peridot. Both gladly accepted, and she pulled them up to a standing position. "Okay," said Pearl, "Peridot, I think we should practice summoning your weapon."

This idea infuriated Peridot, who, despite her newfound experience in combat after joining the Crystal Gems, still is unable to summon her weapon and instead relies on her homemade limb-enhancers. Peridot jumped back, angry at the concept.

"No!" Period said in an annoyed and authoritative manner at Pearl, "I am doing just fine without it, thank you very much!"

Pearl was annoyed with Peridot's stubbornness and refusal to admit she was flawed in combat with just her limb-enhancers, but before she could say anything, Steven spoke. "Peridot," said the 14-year old gem, "I know that you're annoyed that you can't summon your weapon, but please, at least try."

Before Peridot could respond and tell Steven that she's not annoyed, Steven continued. "You received your limb-enhancers from Homeworld. The ones that you built here on earth are awesome, but Homeworld technology is so advanced, and we don't know how much longer these ones will last. I don't want you to get hurt in combat.

"Believe me, I struggled with this exact thing. But once you realize you can summon your weapon, you can do anything. And if nothing else, at least do this for me."

Stunned by Steven's speech, Peridot knelt down next to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Okay Steven," she said calmly, "I'll try."

Pearl, Peridot and Steven all walked towards the Rose Stump, a tree stump that Steven nicknamed for the rose flowers growing next to it. Pearl kneeled down on one end of the tree, and Peridot was about to follow when Pearl made a suggestion: "Peridot, you might want to remove your limb-enhancers. Artificial weapons can interfere in the summoning of your natural gem weapon."

Peridot begrudgingly followed Pearls orders and sat down on the opposite end of the stump. Both of them began meditating. Peridot asked the question that had been weighing on her mind for a while now.

"How am I supposed to summon my weapon," asked the green Gem.

"Well Peridot," said Pearl, standing up from her position, "the trick is to try to concentrate the energy of nature into your specific gemstone, and allow the harmony of nature to guide you through the process. The process takes all of your energy and requires you to try excruciatingly hard. At least, that's how I learned to do it from Rose."

Peridot sat down on the other end of the stump. The whole process sounded extremely intimidating. How would she know if she did it right? How can she detect nature? Or its energy? And how can nature guide her if the process is dependent on the individual?

As these questions weighed and Peridot, she began to feel less confused and more angry. Angry at Pearl for teaching her these faulty techniques. Angry at herself for being unable to summon her weapon. Angry at the energy in nature for being uncooperative. Pretty soon, Peridot felt her blood boil and her body shake. Her palms were shaking with anger from her confusion. She was so irritated, so annoyed, so infuriated, she didn't even notice when her gemstone began to glow bright green.

Steven tapped Pearl on the arm to alert her, and Pearl let out a small gasp. "Peridot..." said Pearl timidly. "What!!" screamed Peridot in a mixture of annoyance and confusion. Steven calmly pointed to her gem, and Peridot realized that her gemstone was glowing as if to summon her weapon. But as fast as this realization hit her, the glowing ceased. The air was silent, and no one dared speak a word. Finally, after what felt like hours of silence, Peridot jumped from her position on the dirt and screeched.

"AAAHHH!!! Why can't I do this!!! Why I am so incapa-" Pearl cut her off.

"Peridot," she said in a comforting, motherly voice, "maybe you just need to do this." Pearl reached over and pulled Peridot's visor off her eyes. Peridot, taken aback by the sudden action, could only watch as the only formal protection for her gem was taken away. Steven gave Peridot a warm smile, before Peridot reached for the visor.

"NO! Pearl, I need that!" she said while reaching for the eye-protection in Pearls hand. Pearl pushed her hand back and retorted "Why are these so important to you? Why must you wear them all the time? You know there just blocking your g-" but Peridot cut her off.

"Because I'm not brave like you clods!!" Pearl and Steven both fell silent from her sudden answer and Peridot explained. "Back on Homeworld, I witnessed someone speak out against Yellow Diamond on a structural engineering assignment. I watched, terrified in the crows, as her form was destroyed and she retreated into her gem to regenerate, only for gem to be publicly smashed to prevent regeneration and cause permanent elimination. I was terrified of exposing my gem afterwards. While we only had to wear visor on engineering missions to protect our vision-spheres, I wore mine because my gem was specifically located on my forehead."

Peridot looked like she was ready to cry, but Pearl leaned forward and put a comforting hand on her friends cheek. "Peridot," she said, "we are all afraid of things, whether its failure, damage or danger. But those fears don't make us weak, they make us stronger. It signifies that we are cautious and know out limits.

"Despite this," said Pearl, "I need you to be brave for me, and I want to see you safe. I want to see you capable of defending yourself. That's why I'm doing this for you. That's why I want you to summon your weapon."

Peridot nodded understandingly. "Now," said Pearl, "let's try this again."

Steven, Pearl and Peridot all returned to their normal positions. Figuring that every gem had a different strategy for summoning their gems, Peridot tried the one that seemed most effective: trying to focus on her anger.

It seemed hard to muster any anger after Pearl's pep talk, but Peridot didn't have to try very hard. Every time she tried to summon her weapon, it always blew up in her face. All the other gems were oh so competent, and in-control of their powers and their weapons and their abilities and then there's Peridot. Peridot, just a common engineer. Peridot, one in a trillion copies of the same gem. Peridot, who has to rely on homemade inventions. Peridot who can't summon her freaking-

"Peridot," said Steven, pointing to the inventor's gem. Peridot gazed up and found that her gem was glowing a marvelous green, and the handle to a weapon had sprouted from it. Peridot pulled on it, and a short sword extended from her gem.

Peridot looked at the magnificent blade that she was holding in her hands. It was small, only about as long as Ruby's gauntlet, but it was beautiful and detailed. It had gem inscriptions on one side of the blade, and the dagger had a beautiful lace wrapped around it. The handle was a glowing green, and the blade was clear and reflective, but the writing on the blade was a deep, dark green.

"I...I did it. I ACTUALLY DID IT" Peridot jumped in the air and screamed out in delight. Steven ran up to Peridot and hugged her. Pearl looked delighted, and she approached Peridot, placing her palm on the young engineers shoulder. "So Peridot," said Pearl, "it has come to my attention from Steven that you and Garnet had previously fused to create 'Jade'. And two nights ago, I witnessed Fluorite emerge as a fusion of you and Amethyst."

Peridot looked proud, as did Pearl, but Pearl wasn't finished. "Peridot, you're still young and inexperienced and...well, the point I'm trying to get at is, I think that you learning to fuse with us is an important step in establishing bonds. I approve of what you are trying to accomplish and succeed in doing. I know that my bond with Lapis improved significantly, and Peridot, I want to accomplish the same thing."

Peridot began to grasp the meaning of Pearl's speech as Pearl stole the words right from her mouth. Using Amethysts affectionate nickname, she said with joy, "Peri, lets fuse."

Steven was sitting cross-legged on the Stump as he looked at Peridot and Pearl. Peridot had chosen to wear her leg-enhancers to get closer to Pearl's height, but she didn't wear her arm-enhancers for fear it would interfere in the dance.

Pearl initiated the dance with a ballerina twirl with her arms extended outwards to her left and right. Peridot then followed in a similar spin. Both of their gems began to glow white and light green respectively. Pearl completed two more twirls, but this time she spun on her right foot instead of her left, and she pointed her slender arms upwards instead of to her sides. Peridot side-stepped towards Pearl, grabbed her left shoulder with her right hand, and used her reaming hand to hold Pearls wrist. Peridot dipped Pearl and the dance had ended; the fusion synchronization process was complete.

A lime green light blasted out from where Peridot and Pearl stood, and a new figure emerged momentarily. She was roughly as tall as Opal, and dressed in a variation of Peridot's dress, except it had white, dark green and brown for its color palette and with Pearl's star insignia and lace.

The figure turned towards a grinning Steven. "Hello Steven," she muttered in a soothing, albeit high, voice. She walked towards him and knelt down next to him so the eye level difference was less dramatic. After recovering from the shock of Pearl fusing with Peridot, Steven finally let out a whisper: "Giant woman."

The new fusion smiled at him, and, remembering his song began to sing in a delightful harmony: "All you wanna do, is see me turn into a Giant Woman."

Steven grinned at the memory of his first Giant Woman, Opal, almost 18 months ago. So much has changed since then. Steven jumped off the stump and onto the fusions foot, giving her a big hug. She giggled before stating, "well, that was uncalled for."

Steven looked up at her four pale green eyes and said in a stunned voice, "I never thought Peri would fuse with Pearl."

She let out a hearty laughter and leaned in real close to Steven before saying. "It happened bub. Get over it." She pulled him into a great big hug with her two long, slender arms while both were laughing. "Oh you little scamp, get over here!!"

The two laughed and giggled during the hug, and Steven didn't realize at first that the fusion had disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a laughing and hugging Peridot and Pearl. After a moment of admiring his two "moms", Steven finally asked "What was that? Who was she?"

Pearl and Peridot smiled at each other, before Pearl knelt down to Steve's eye level and said "That was Olivine."


	5. Chapter 5: Aquamarine and Larimar

Peridot and Lapis were in the Barn, putting the last finishing touches on the EMP/Cannon.

"So, Lazuli," said Peridot with a hint of annoyance, "how did you manage to get out of going to the mission?"

Lapis lazily shrugged and replied, "I figured having 5 gems, 6 counting Steven, all going on a mission seemed like overkill for one spotted gem monster. So I told Garnet that I should stay behind to keep you company while you work on the machine. Plus," she said while levitating water from a bucket behind her, "I figured my hydrokinesis could come in handy."

"Your abilities will be most useful in the event of an accident," said Peridot without looking up from the control panel she was rewiring, "but I highly doubt those excuses are adequate for skipping Gem missions."

"Yeah, well, I was just kinda lazy," said Lapis while leaning against the Barn wall. The blue gems cockiness irritated Peridot to no end, but while she would never admit it, she was glad to have the company. Having a legitimate conversation with another gem certainly beat talking to the walls. 

Lapis looked over at Peridot, and then at the cart she was supposed to set the EMP Cannon on. The cart was divided into two parts: a series of wheels connected through 6 axis's, and a board to be set on top of it that the Cannon is supposed to be placed on.

"So Peri," said Lapis as she walked towards the green gem, "how are you gonna connect the wagon and get the Cannon on it?"

"Well," said Peridot as she rubbed her chin, "Pearl suggested I assemble the wagon under the Cannon, but I deemed that to inconvenient. So she offered to help me build a crane to assemble the pieces."

Lapis turned around and leaned against the barrel of the Cannon with a smirk on her face. "I got a better idea."

"And what would that be Lazuli," said Peridot with annoyance in her voice. The engineer was growing irritated at the water-controllers constant disruptions.

Lapis said calmly while closing her eyes "Let's fuse." Peridot was somewhat taken aback by this, as all of her fusions in the past had been some representation of friendship or companionship. Peridot's fusion with Garnet to form Jade and her fusion with Amethyst to form Fluorite were both examples of friendship and comfort. Peridot's fusion with Pearl to form Olivine three days prior was an example of both training and caring. But Peridot's relationship with Lapis was...strained. The two didn't get along fabulously to say the least, not since Lapis returned to Beach City after the 'Malachite Incident', and her bond with Lapis was definitely more troubled the Lapis's relationship with Steven or Pearl.

Peridot was about to open her mouth, when Lapis stated "and remember what Pearl said; don't use hydrokinesis unless you absolutely have to. Something about the water leaking into the base of the Cannon and short-circuiting it. Also, Garnet said something to the effect that there is a 15% chance one of us will get electrocuted during this, and I would rather avoid that."

"I'm not sure that's such a great idea, Lazuli," said Peridot in a troubled voice. "Why," said Lapis, offended. "Is it because I'm 'inexperienced' at fusion. I'll have you know that-" but Peridot cut her off.

"Of course it's not that, Lazuli. From what Garnet has described, Moonstone was formed successfully. I'm worried about another 'Malachite Incident'." Lapis looked stunned that a fusion between the two could be compared to Malachite, but allowed Peridot to explain. "I know that you are far more mistrusting of Jasper and I then the original Crystal Gems because of the 'Jailbreak' incident. That's why you can fuse with Pearl splendidly: because she tried to help you after the Malachite incident."

"But Peri," said Lapis, putting a comforting hand on Peridot's shoulder, "I don't want any bad blood between us. I'm starting a new life, and you know this. I won't allow my relationship with the only family I have left to be destroyed."

Accepting this answer, Peridot told Lapis, "Okay Lazuli. We can fuse."

The dance was far more simple then Lapis or Peridot's other fusions; Peridot simply spun Lapis and dipped her, before Lapis pulled herself back up, spun around on her left foot, and allowed Peridot to hold her extended arm. A cyan burst of light came from their feet, and the fusion emerged.

She was magnificent, about five feet shorter than Sardonyx, with turquoise skin, long, flowing blue hair, four eyes and four, muscular arms.

She proceeded to take the massive board and set it in the axel slit, completing the wagon, before grabbing the new EMP Cannon with both hands and setting it on the cart. As quickly as her task was complete, she heard a sound outside. Due to being a fusion, she had enhanced senses, including hearing. The fusion kicked the barn door open and looked outside, but found nothing. Satisfied, she closed the Barn door and defused.

Peridot and Lapis stood, holding each other's hands, where their fusion stood just a moment ago. After a second, Lapis jumped in Peridot's arm pulling her into a big hug. "That was awesome Peri!!"

"Why are you hugging me Lazuli," said Peridot with irritation in her voice. "I've never felt fusion like that before."

"Lapis, what on earth are you talking about," said a confused Peridot. "I-I've just...never felt so...smart." Peridot blushed madly as Lapis continued, "I guess I know what it feels like to be you."

The two gems stared at each other before Peridot broke the silence and said, "thank you Lapis."

Lapis sat down on a nearby bale of hay and asked "what should we call her?" After a moment's consideration, Peridot replied "Aquamarine."

__________________________________________

The night following, Garnet and Lapis were on a mission. Both were sent with Steven to recover the Heaven Beetle, a rare creature that Amethyst and Pearl obtained with Steven on the day he witnessed fusion for the first time. It had gotten lose from its cage when the Cannon blast breached the Burning Room. Unfortunately, the place were Garnet lost track of the Beetle, outside the Temple next to Jasper's room, was now infested with Aerial Serpents, a rare type of corrupted gem monster that had wings and snake-like bodies.

Outside the temple, Garnet was with Steven and Lapis. "Steven," said Garnet cautiously and authoritative, "this place that Lapis and I are going is extremely dangerous, and the only reason I'm allowing you to come is that you need the training."

"But Garnet," said Lapis, "hasn't Steven been exceling in Pearl's combat curriculum these last few weeks."

"Technically, yes," replied the stoic leader, "but Steven's training doesn't involve a lot of team work. And if it does, it involves Jasper and Amethyst, two gems he's incredibly comfortable with in combat."

Garnet got up and looked at Lapis. "Lapis," said Garnet, "I know that Steven's powers and skills have increased exponentially since you returned to beach city, but he needs to learn how to cooperate well with some diversity. With your aqua-wings and hydrokinesis, and my strength and speed, we will be the most diverse team he has had to work with. I promise this will be good for him."

Lapis still looked hesitant, but nodded in agreement, not willing to risk an argument with the de facto leader of the gems. "Let's go," said Garnet, holding Steven's hand and pulling him to his feet.

They were walking for about twenty minutes when Lapis spoke. "So...what exactly does the Heaven Beetle look like?" Garnet explained it to Lapis. "It is golden, with two spots of blue on its back. But that's largely unimportant. It should still be in its tank. I used a special type of gem-made impact-resistant plastic, so the tank should still be intact."

Lapis turned to Steven, who was on her right, and he explained the tank. "Its sides are clear, but not reflective, and its bottom and top are a brownish-orange color." Steven held out his arm to give Lapis an idea of what the tanks dimensions were.

"Got it," replied the blue gem. After a while more of walking, Steven noticed something: the tanks brown-orange top. "Guys, I see something," cried out Steven while examining the placement of the top. He, Garnet and Lapis were walking on the side of a cliff, and had been for a few minutes. A series of stone pillars rose from the ground-level beach. The crate was on a ledge beneath Steven's feet. Lapis and Garnet peered over and saw the top. Garnet shape-shifted her arm and stretched it out, allowing her to grab it. She and Lapis examined it.

"Well, you were right Garnet," said Lapis. "The top is still intact, with the exception of a few scratches from the rocks on the side." Lapis looked behind her and noticed the slope of rock. "It probably tumbled down the slope," said Lapis, "so the rest of the tank must be lower on this cliff."

She, Garnet and Steven all jumped down the cliff side and onto a lower edge. Lapis found the rest of the cage on the ledge, but it was empty; the Beetle was gone.

"Garnet, Lapis, the Beetle!" cried Steven enthusiastically. He pointed towards one of the pillars beneath them. Sure enough, the golden-colored Heaven Beetle was there. Before Lapis or Garnet could say or do anything, Steven jumped down and grabbed it.

"Guys! I got it!"

"Steven, what are you doing," shouted Lapis frantically. "Get away from there!"

"But guys," said Steven while shrugging, "I got it no big d-"

Steven was cut off by one of the Aerial Serpents abruptly bursting from the ground and grabbing him by the long, snake-like tail; the pillar Steven was standing on was an Aerial Serpent nest. Steven tried to summon his shield and ram the serpent with it, but to no avail.

Lapis instantly summoned her wings, but Garnet put her arm in front of her. "It's no use Lazuli," said Garnet stoically. "There isn't water this high up from the ground for you to fight with."

"Well what are you suggesting!" screamed Lapis frantically. Garnet simply smiled.

Steven was getting pulled along by the Aerial Serpent in flight, presumably to some far off location to devour the small gem. Steven was still repeatedly ramming his shield into it tail. The monsters tail was wrapped so tightly around him his leg was starting to bruise. Steven tried to heal himself with saliva, but it had no effect as long as the monster still had him secure.

Suddenly, a blue winged gem flew by, slamming her knee into the monsters face. Steven took advantage of the situation and pried himself from the monsters tail. He landed on another cliff. He couldn't recognize the gem. It looked like Lapis, what with the wings and the blue and all but he couldn't tell. She somehow looked...different.

No

It couldn't be.

Steven watched in awe as the gem summoned two gauntlets made of water and repeatedly punched the serpent in the face. She then maneuvered her way around the serpents tail, before firmly punching it in its chest where the gem was. The monsters body was instantly destroyed, and she caught the gem, before flying back to Steven's cliff.

Steven now clearly saw the gem: her skin was a dark blue, and she had flowing light blue hair that fell across her face, more akin to Sapphire's hair then Lapis's. She had a two piece outfit; the upper piece resembled Lapis's both in shape and design, while the lower piece resembled Garnet's legs and had star symbols on the knees. She was holding the heaven Beetle in one hand, and the monsters gem in the other. "Who are you," said Steven.

She unfused, leaving Lapis and Garnet in her place, and leaving Steven in awe of the new fusion. Garnet and Lapis confidentally looked at one another, and Garnet gestured towards Lapis. Lapis spoke in a reassuring voice, "Steven... that was Larimar."


	6. Chapter 6: Sunstone

Jasper and Garnet had taken to patrolling the deserts outside Beach City since the Cannon malfunctioned. The Desert Glass gemstone has been lost since the malfunctioning, and Jasper had taken it upon herself to investigate. Garnet volunteered as well, considering she, Amethyst and Pearl were the only gems to have previously dealt with the Desert Glass, but both were helping Peridot build a new cannon.

"So Garnet," said Jasper while trekking across one of the many hills of sand that covered the landscape of sand a heat, "how will we know when he locate the Desert Glass gemstone."

"Well," said Garnet while trudging behind Jasper, "it's going to have pillars of sand around it, but due to the unpredictable nature of the gem, we don't know in what radius the pillars are going to be, what size or height they take, or how durable they'll be."

"So basically," said Jasper, "we just need to look for any disturbance."

"Pretty much," said the fusion.

"Peachy."

After a while longer, Jasper asked Garnet the question that had been weighing on her mind throughout the entire trip: "But how do we know that the gem won't have evolved or changed its tactics? It's been over one earth year since it was last in action."

"I guess we'll just see," said the red gem with a surprising smile. "Great, more optimism," replied the orange gem almost instantly.

Garnet and Jasper cleared four more hills before the latter questioned the former once more. "So what were the gem's defenses last time."

"Last time, it changed the entire landscape by solidifying sand into weapons and fortifications of stone," replied Garnet.

"What kind of fortifications,"

"Well, Steven would be able to tell you about it more than I can. This was the day he encountered Lion in the desert. After officially adopting Lion, the two worked together to stop the Desert Glass."

"I've met Lion before," said Jasper while shielding her eyes from the sun.

"Yeah, well, from Steven's descriptions, the Desert Glass elevated itself with a sand tower and surrounded itself with spikes to prevent anyone from getting near."

"Wasn't that after it already had been in the desert for two weeks?"

"Yes, but as you said, it could have changed or evolved. It might have recently found its way to the desert, just three days ago, but don't underestimate it. We have no idea if its defenses are consistent."

"We'll do. But how-" Jasper was cut off by Garnet shushing her. "WHAT DO YOU THING YO-" screamed Jasper in annoyance, but this time Garnet all-out tackled Jasper to the ground and shoved the larger gems mouth into the sand to prevent her from speaking.

Garnet cut down on both knees and leaned in towards Jasper. "Shhh," she whispered. "I sense something with my future vision. There's a gem monster two hills ahead of us, and its moving this way, thanks to your scream."

Jasper lifted her head from the sand and turned to face Garnet. "Well how was I supposed to know th-" but she was cut off by Garnet summoning her gauntlet and pressing it against Jasper's mouth. "We gotta move up there, and quickly. I sense it's the Desert Glass, and it crafted a monstrous body around itself to protect its gem."

"How big is it?" asked Jasper. "About as large as Sugilite," replied Garnet stoically while trying to look over the tip of the hill to see it. "Darn," replied Jasper. "Well that means we gotta bring out the big guns."

The sand monster gazed over the hills in front of her. There she saw her opponent: Sunstone was large and muscular, very much taking after Jasper's Quartz-type origins. She had large, broad, bulky shoulders and humungous arms with colossal hands to match.

Her legs and arms were thick and meaty, with a large, brawny body to match. She had grey, curly hair that was a combination of Garnet's black afro with Jasper's long and flowing white hair. Her entire body was a tan, navel orange color lined with obstinate orange, a color pallet inherited from Jasper.

Sunstone charged the sand monster and summoned Jasper's helmet before ramming her head into its neck. The monster squealed in pain, and the long, rectangular front of the helmet jammed into its face, causing more damage to the monster. The sand creature tried to immobilize Sunstone at the close range by summoning three more arms to grab her, but Sunstone grabbed each of its hands with her four arms and punched it in the face with one of Garnet's gauntlet.

Sunstone lifted the creature up off its feet by the three extra arms, tearing two of them right out of their sand sockets in the process. Sunstone delivered a damaging kick to its side as two of her other arms grabbed opposite sides of the monsters chest and pulled.

The sand monster let out a screech of pain that was almost deafening, but Sunstone continued, and ripped apart the monster, revealing the Desert Glass in its chest. Satisfied, Sunstone gave a borderline-sadistic smile, used on her spare hands to rip the gem out, and watched in gladiatorial satisfaction as the monster crumbled apart.

As Jasper and Garnet trudged home with Garnet carrying the fallen gem in her gauntleted hand, she looked upon Jasper, who had a smile on her face. "What's so great," she asked the smirking Quartz gem. "I've just...we've never cooperated as Sunstone like that before. It was fun."

"Yeah," said Garnet with a satisfied smile. "It was."


	7. Chapter 7: Kyanite

Since Lapis had fused with Peridot to form Aquamarine, she was beginning to take a larger interest in what was put into a relationship to fuse. Larimar and Moonstone had clearly evidenced this, but what else was there to fusion?

Lapis was meditating in her room, trying to figure out what Larimar, Moonstone and Aquamarine all had in common and trying to forget about the Malachite incident. But after a while, Lapis's thoughts drifted elsewhere. What she and Pearl were talking about that led to Moonstone...

Lapis had known for some time, ever since what Garnet referred to as the "Chille Tid incident", that she and Steven had some kind of mental link, presumably from when he freed her from her mirror, or possibly from when he healed her gem the next day.

Whatever the cause of their psychic link, she knew Steven still had nightmares about that day. The day she stole the ocean. The day she broke his dad's leg. The day she nearly drowned him and Connie...

'No! Stop!' she almost cried out in both horror and anger. How could she have been so stupid? So careless! How could she almost kill three people in one fight? Two humans and one gem! The one gem that showed her kindness after years of being used as some...historical tool!

And back to the mirror!! Why was she kept in there? She knew for a fact that the Crystal Gems didn't do it, much less the benevolent Rose Quartz that Jasper discusses honorably and Pearl talks about with such love. She knew that known of them did it. After all, the day Steven rescued her was the first time Pearl laid eyes on the mirror after finding it in the Galaxy Warp. And Rose, despite Lapis not knowing her, knew that she couldn't have done it because the gems would've known, or at the very least, seen her.

But no. None of these happened, leaving Lapis more full of anger and confusion then she thought possible. She was so mad, she could just feel the water leaving the river...

"Hey Lappy," said a familiar voice, pulling her back to reality. "Hey Amethyst," said Lapis glumly.

"Wow, girl are you okay? You look terrible," said Amethyst with a rare tone of confusion. "Wow, thanks for that Ame," said Lapis sarcastically while using her affectionate nickname for Amethyst. "But honestly, I'm fine."

"You don't look like it." Amethyst sat down on a nearby rock and motioned for Lapis to sit to. "Why don't you tell me about it."

Lapis walked over to Amethyst. "I don't know where to begin."

"Start at the beginning."

Lapis looked saddned, and after a few seconds she finally said "I remember some stuff about Homeworld. About other gems. But for the life of me, I can't remember how I got in that mirror. My gosh, I just snapped at you guys."

Amethyst nodded reassuringly as Lapis continued, "I just have so much anger over how I spent five millennia in that tool. And I feel so much guilt over what I did afterwards. How I stole the ocean. How I almost drowned Steven and Connie...gosh, Amethyst, I almost drowned Steven and Connie! How can I forgive myself."

By this point Lapis was sobbing, but Amethyst kept a straight face. She put her arms around Lapis and brought the crying gem into a big hug before she began speaking to Lapis, almost a whisper. "Ya know, most nights like these, I would make a joke about how you should visit Pearl about this stuff. But not tonight."

Amethyst put her hands on Lapis's cheeks and looked at her as tears trickled down her eyes. "Because I know exactly how you're feeling."

"You do," choked out Lapis between sobs.

"Yeah. I was made on The Kindergarten. I harbor a lot of grudges towards that. How I, a rebel fighting for a supposedly good cause, was made in a place by bad gems, for bad gems, alongside other bad gems."

Lapis stopped crying and looked at Amethyst in shock. "But it gets better," said Amethyst reassuringly as she wiped a tear off Lapis's cheek with her thumb, "and the first step is telling someone else."

Lapis pulled Amethyst into a tight hug as a fresh batch of hot tears came rolling down. "Thank you Amethyst."

Their hugging positions were consumed by a dark blue light. When the light cleared stood a blue gem, with long, messy, pale blue hair with violet highlights, skin-tight gray pants with stars cut-out on the knees, blue and purple tattoos along her arms, and a dark blue miniskirt with purple highlights that came down to her thighs.

"Thank you Ame," said Kyanite as tears streamed down the left side of her face. "Thank you."


	8. Chapter 8: Bloodstone

Peridot and Jasper stood outside on the beach coastline practicing their dancing routines as Steven watched eagerly.

After a while, Jasper let out a large groan. "Why are we even doing this!? We both know I'm perfectly capable of fusing."

Steven got up from his spot and walked over to his two "moms" as Peridot began to explain, "Jasper, we both know you're relatively inexperienced. Feeling that it's a better way to increase out teamwork and cooperation, Pearl and Garnet want me to help you learn to fuse more effectively."

"Garnet? Why would she assign you to this? She knows I'm experienced at this. We just formed Sunstone less than four days ago."

"Yes," said Peridot while raising her hand in a statement, "but Garnet said that Sunstone was somewhat hard to direct and control."

"Well," said Jasper, clearly irritated and offended, "why would they trust you to perform this task."

"Both Pearl and Garnet have fused with me in the past to form Olivine and Jade respectively."

"Great," said Jasper, "my instructor couldn't have been Amethyst or someone, it had to be a stuck-up teacher's pet. Give me one example of my fusion's malfunctioning," said Jasper as she looked away in annoyance

"Malachite," said Peridot flatly while raising her eyebrows

Jasper turned her whole body to Peridot. "You little clod..." said the orange gem angrily, but before she could do anything, Steven ran up to the two of them, holding his hands out to stop them. "Guys! Gems shouldn't fight gems. Jasper, say you're sorry."

"No," said Jasper while gazing down the smaller gem.

Clearly annoyed at the larger gems comment, Peridot exhaled an angry breath and continued. "Okay, let us try this again."

Jasper and Peridot bowed to one-another as their gems glowed their respective colors: the triangular gem on Peridot's forehead glowed a light green while Jasper's glowed orange on her face. 

. Peridot twirled around on the tips of her toes similar to Pearl's ballerina positions. She leaned back as Jasper side-stepped towards her. Peridot brought herself back up as Jasper placed her hand on Peridot's shoulder, and the two of them switched and spinned counterclockwise before Jasper dipped Peridot. Peridot looked at Steven upside-down before she was brought back up. A surge of light consumed the two dancing gems, and it turned a dark red color.

The light revealed a gargantuan, six-legged, two-armed green fusion with a massive orange-and-green mane and red stripes along her skin. It had to be about Malachite's size when she first formed. The fusion groaned in agony before opening her six eyes and looking at Steven. Steven was excitedly jumping up and down, but the fusion slammed her foot down, sending a ripple throughout the sand that knocked Steven off balance. Steven looked in horror as the fusion leaned down and gazed at him with her emerald, lifeless eyes.

"Peridot," he squeaked. "Jasper."

The fusion jumped from her crouching position. She extended two of her legs forward and screamed "We are Bloodstone!"

__________

Garnet had been training in her room when Amethyst literally kicked down her door.

Garnet turned around as the grey slab of stone hit the ground. Amethyst was standing there, panting from the run she took to get to Garnet's secluded room. Garnet got up from her yoga position on the ground and summoned her crimson gauntlets.

"What's the sitch," said Garnet stoically. Through pants of exhaustion, Amethyst replied "You better come see."

Garnet ran alongside the smaller Quartz gem. Garnet was definitely ticked off at the invasion of her privacy, but whatever the reason for why Amethyst would kick her door down had to be good. No one kicked the mighty Garnet's door down without reason...

Garnet and Amethyst burst through the patio door and saw it. Bloodstone was struggling to control herself, but she was stomping around the beach like crazy, with her arms flailing around as if she were trying to hit a fly with her bare fists.

Steven ran up to them with his shield summoned. He too was out of breath, and whatever breaths came out of his little mouth were ragged and painful. The teen had clearly been sprinting for his life.

"What is that...thing," said Garnet to no one in particular without emotion. She suddenly recognized the emerald green skin color that covered most of the creatures body, and the red stripes covering its arms, legs and face.

"Please tell me they didn't..." said the gem leader. Amethyst let out a sigh of defeat. "They did...and the result is Bloodstone," she said while holding up a hand towards the creature.

"Why are they so out of control?" questioned Steven. "Whenever Jasper and Peridot fuse with anyone else, the result is so...natural."

Garnet let out a sigh of defeat before telling the young gem "Every fusion is different depending on its components. Jasper isn't used to Peridot's agility and speed, and Peridot isn't used to Jasper's strength, and neither of them know what it's like to fuse with each other, so the result is disastrous."

"Garnet," said Amethyst. "We gotta do it. We gotta fuse."

Garnet's expression turned to anger as she looked down at Amethyst. "Amethyst you know we can-" but she was abruptly cut off by the purple whip-user.

"I know, I know, but Lapis is checking out the Kindergarten for her patrol and Pearl's at the communications tower to make sure we aren't getting any other gem signals. I tried to fight that thing, but I can't Garnet. Jasper and Peridot are so out of control, that we got fight fire with fire."

Garnet briefly considered the younger gems words. Amethyst knew the consequences of using Sugilite, as evidenced by when they first showed Steven to her. Garnet decided that she hadn't faced the monster, but Amethyst had, and she trusted her judgement.

______________________

"Bloodstone!" cried Sugilite from across the beach. Bloodstone looked up from her position on the beach and faced the purple fusion behemoth. 

"Took ya long enough" said the red and green gem as she menacingly smiled, but her head was instantly overcome by a burning sensation from within. Pain spiraled through the beast as Jasper and Peridot struggled to control the fusion they made. Bloodstone saw stars as Sugilite calmly approached her despite the size of both monsters. 

"Ya know," said Sugilite as she cracked her knuckles, "I wasn't planning on fighting you, but it seems like I have no other choice."

"Please," said Jasper and Peridot's overlapping voices through Bloodstone, "I can't control it. Neither of us. You gotta help us."

"Why don't I just put you out of your misery," stated Sugilite as she summoned her visor. She charged Bloodstone and rammed her shoulder into the larger gem. The beast went flying, and no sooner did she reach the water of the ocean did Sugilite summon Sapphire's brass knuckles, Ruby's gloves, and Amethyst's whip. 

Sapphire's brass knuckles fused with Ruby's gloves to create both of Garnet's gauntlets, which were instantly tied up by Amethyst's whip. Sugilite swung the resulting flail at Bloodstone. It slammed the fusion across the side of the head. As Bloodstone flew through the air, Sugilite used the momentum from her flail attack to spin the weapon 360 degrees, and she switched the handle between her upper right arm to her upper left arm, allowing her to hit Bloodstone across the side of the face again. 

Bloodstone sunk beneath the ocean water, but she burst out of it almost instantly and, with the element of surprise due to her quick recovery from both flail attacks, she used six of her eight legs to deliver starling kicks to Sugilite, knocking the purple Quartz hybrid on the ground. Bloodstone summoned her weapon (a combination of Jasper's crash helmet with Peridot's blade sprouting from its tip) and charged toward Sugilite, but Sugilite grabbed the helmet with her left arms and delivered two punches to the neck and face of Bloodstone with her upper and lower right arms. 

With Bloodstone stunned, Sugilite grabbed each of the red gems arms and began to pull in opposite directions. While not nearly as clean as Opal and Alexandrite being able to defuse colossal fusions like Malachite with her/their bow, the process still worked. Bloodstone 's physical form decayed into a blob of red light, and both of her components were released and they crashed to the ground. 

Sugilite defused, leaving an exhausted Amethyst and Garnet. All four gems caught their breath on the torn up beach until Amethyst spoke first. 

"Nobody tell Pearl."


	9. Chapter 9: Iolite

"I don't understand," began Lapis as she trudged up the steps to the Ancient Sky Arena, "why I have to learn how to function in triple-gem fusions. I don't know if you've noticed, but I've already participated in a triple-gem fusion with Garnet. And both of you for Pete's sake! 

"If you haven't noticed already," the blue gem continued, "Kyanite and Moonstone are some of the most successful fusions to occur since I've started practicing."

"Well yes," began Pearl, "I suppose they are."

Lapis glared at Amethyst, who was two steps ahead of her, but the purple Quartz replied with a simple "this was P's idea. Don't look at me."

Pearl groaned in defeat at the two gems inability to grasp the importance of practicing. "Amethyst, we've talked about this. And Lapis," she said while purposely falling behind a few strides so she could face the ocean Gem, "two-gem fusions are drastically different from three-gem fusions, as evidenced by the forementioned Garnet, and Steven's own Stevonnie."

"That doesn't count," Lapis grumbled, "both of those fusions are made of love."

"Steven and Connie aren't in love," said Pearl. Lapis simply looked at the slender Gem and kept walking.

"Whatever," said Pearl, clearly frustrated that she hadn't noticed her little Steven had developed a crush on Connie, "the point is that three-gem fusions are more complex then two gem fusions because, no matter the relationship between two of the Gems, adding a third into the equation will be more complicated. I figured that since we've all had successful two-gem fusions with each other, us three all fusing together is the next logical step."

Amethyst groaned in response, but Lapis persisted with her original counter-reason for her fusion practice. "But what about what I said earlier? How I've already fused with Ruby and Sapphire to make Larimar?"

"Well," said Pearl, unsure of how to answer the ocean Gem's question due to her not being present for the three-way fusion, "what I've learned over the years is that fusions can be extremely successful under pressure. Take for instance, the first time Steven witnessed Amethyst and I fuse."

Amethyst questioningly looked at the slender gem. "I don't get it," said Amethyst, "how was that similar to Larimar?"

"Because," said Pearl as she raised a finger, "both were formed in a 'fight-or-flight' scenario. In other words, both times, the fusions were created under extreme pressure to save the common variable of Steven."

"And you two later got better at fusing," said Lapis, continuing Pearl's thought, "to the point that you guys could fuse with relative ease."

"Exactly," said Pearl. 

The three gems reached the top of the Arena and Pearl held her arms out to welcome the two to the location. Amethyst took a seat on a scratched up, torn piece of stone that she presumed once functioned as a seat, but Lapis stared in awe at the size of the Arena. About a third of it had been obliterated during the war or eroded afterwards, but it was still massive. Lapis could only presume it must have been massive in its prime. 

"All right," said Pearl as she clapped her hands, "lets begin."

_______________________

"Wait," said Peridot as she stood before Garnet and Jasper, "we're supposed to practice triple-gem fusions!"

"Technically," said Garnet as she gestured towards each of the gems on her hands, "its quadruple gem fusions, but yes, similar concept."

"But why!?" cried the green engineer gem.

"We figured," said Jasper as she took a step towards Peridot, "that since you had been having success fusing with Garnet, that adding in another variable to help practice for fusions beyond triple gems would be beneficial. Plus, Pearl and Amethyst took Lazuli to the Arena to practice their triple-gem fusions, so we figured we would try it ourselves."

"Pearl, Amethyst and I," began Garnet, "arranged for our group to split up this way because every member of Pearl's group had relative ease with double fusions, so a triple fusions would be easy, and since Jasper and I recently demonstrated in the desert our cooperation using Sunstone, we figured a fusion between the three of us would give you your first taste of fusions beyond the two-gem and three-gem variety."

Trying to take in all that information at once Peridot simply stared at the Crystal Gem leader and gave her a small "okay". 

"Now," said Jasper, "I think its about time we start practicing."

"Wait," said Peridot with a raised hand. "What about me and Jasper? I know that Jade is a cooperative fusion, and Sunstone is successful, but Bloodstone was a disaster."

"I'm well aware of that," said Garnet, "but when Sugilite was first formed in front of Steven, she went insane. Despite this, Alexandrite was used multiple times in the war successfully, and then used to fight and defeat the berserk Malachite."

Jasper cringed at the mention of her failed fusion with Lapis, but Garnet continued. "Since our fusion will incorporate me in it, I have faith that we won't have another Bloodstone incident, and I think its worth the risk anyways."

Jasper and Peridot turned towards each other, briefly considered what Garnet had said, as well as their own past fusions with her, and turned back to their leader before giving a nod of agreement."

"Excellent," said Garnet as her gems began to glow red. A smile appeared on her face. 

_____________________________________

Lapis, Pearl and Amethyst's respective Gems each began to glow dark blue, white, and purple respectively. The dance had been initiated. Amethyst took a stride towards Lapis and dipped the Gem, before lifting Pearl up by her stomach and twirling her around. Lapis shuffled her feet and slid towards Pearl as the latter came back on the ground. Lapis grabbed Pearl's arms, spun both of them around in a full circle twice, before letting go of her left hand and grabbing Amethyst's left hand. The three gems, now standing in a single file line of each other, were completely absorbed in a white light. Their fusion emerged. 

She was 37 inches taller than Rainbow Quartz or Moonstone, but just about as tall as Sardonyx, if not, maybe two or three inches taller. She had long hair, the same texture, form, length and size as Amethyst's, but a slightly lighter shade of orange than Pearl's hair. There were white and dark blue dyes of hair all tangled around the natural orange color, creating a mesmerizing combination of color. 

Her body type was an amalgam of Moonstone's, Kyanite's, and Opal's. She was taller than all of them, with the thickness in her hips and legs of Kyanite, the back and chest shape of Opal, and the slender arms and thin neck of Moonstone. 

She wore a long, white dress with almost no distinctive marks on it besides an upside down triangle on the back to reveal Lapis's teardrop shaped gemstone. The only real feature on the slip-on dress was a streak of black, horizontal lines on the bottom of the dress that intercepted with a series of vertical gold lines that started on the back and front middle of the dress. 

There was a tattoo of Pearl's oval gem, Lapis's gem, and Amethyst's pentagon facet gemstone on the upper left arm. A series of intricate diamonds connected by lines in black ink appeared on her upper right arm. The fusion opened her four eyes and examined her periwinkle colored skin and the intricate designs on her arms before proudly declaring her name. 

Pearl taught the three new Gems that, when deciding a name to pick for a fusion, it should come naturally and with the least amount of resistance. 

Now, the fusion looked at her dress, at Amethyst's gemstone, and at her four arms before saying three words: "I am Iolite".

__________________________________

Iolite had no sooner heard a deafening roar from far below the Arena on the surface then the Pad had activated. Steven sprinted out of the resulting pillar of white-blue light, his shirt soaked with sweat and blood coming from two cuts on his left arm and right cheek.   
The half gem had seen so many fusions since Lapis and Jasper joined, he didn't even question what mysterious fusion was in front of him. 

"What happened," asked Iolite as she defensively turned her whole body to Steven, as if whatever was done there could burst through the floor and grab him any minute. 

"I tripped... on a rock... while running... up here," said Steven between breathes.

"Not that," said Iolite, with fear and caution simultaneously expressing themselves in her voice. 

"Peridot...Jasper...Garnet...Kornerupine...FUSION!" cried Steven. His knees buckled and he fell to the floor. Iolite crouched real low on her knees, but even then, she still towered over the teenager. 

"Steven, stay here. I'll investigate what's going on," said Iolite with what was her equivalent of the combined authority of Lapis, Amethyst and Pearl. 

"This is just like Bloodstone," Steven mumbled while placing a hand on the cut on his cheek.

"What's Bloodstone?" asked Iolite, but Amethyst instantly replied from Iolite with a quick "I'll tell you later."

Iolite gave Steven a small hug with her lower arms, spoke a small "stay safe" to the Gem-human hybrid, and ran into the Pad, with it activating before she even stepped foot on it. 

She instantly found herself standing in front of the far end of Beach City, with citizens running scared from what she presumed to be "Kornerupine", the fusion Steven frantically mentioned. Truly, there was reason to be scared of this monstrosity. 

Kornerupine had a large diversity of color and form. She had a large, elongated mouth with sets of teeth sharp as daggers in it. Her back was made up of all brown, except for three vertical lines in the center: one red, one yellow, and one orange. Her five eyes were all different colors: red, orange, blue, forest green, and emerald green. She had a semi-clear visor covering all five eyes that was red on the left side and green on the right side. 

Her uppermost set of arms resembled Jasper's in composition and color; they were incredibly muscular, and made up of orange, red, but unlike Jasper's, there was some yellow on them. Her middle left arm had the color palate of both Sapphire and Ruby; it was made up of light blue and a deep, blood-like shape of red. Her middle right arm was made up of jet black and a light red color. Her lowermost pair of arms had an olive skin color with green gloves and other rubber green stretches. 

Kornerupine was currently howling in pain (a sound deafening enough that most citizens stopped fleeing and panicking to bring their hands to their ears), and her visor was cracked, which Iolite suspected from fighting herself. As if to prove her theory, Kornerupine slammed her middle right hand across her face in a slapping motion, which was followed by her lowermost right hand getting balled into a fist and punching her face. Kornerupine bit down on the knuckle of her fist, stepping on a car and a semi-truck in the process, and tripped on her feet, slamming into a building. 

Iolite could only guess what was going on from Pearl's experience watching Sugilite and Lapis's experience as Malachite: two of the gems involved were fighting to stay together as Kornerupine because of their combined power, which led to one of the components resenting this and forcing the quadruple Gem fusion into fighting herself. 

"Kornerupine!!!" screamed Iolite. This caught the larger Gem's attention, and forced her into a combat position. 

"You three have been fused two long," said Iolite, recalling Pearl's words during the Sugilite incident. "You're becoming as unstable as Malachite. Or Bloodstone. If you guys stay like this for much longer, you'll become inseparable, and you'll lose your individual selves."

"Shut Up!!" screamed Kornerupine. She picked up a water truck and threw it at Iolite. The smaller fusion ducked beneath it, and she summoned Amethyst's whip. Kornerupine summoned Bloodstone's swords/helmet hybrid weapon onto her head, and she summoned Ruby's glove and Sapphire's brass knuckle onto her middle set of arms. She slammed her fists together, with the two weapons on it, and Garnet's gauntlets formed onto her middle hands. 

Utilizing Garnet's rocket technique Kornerupine shot one of the gauntlets at Iolite, but Iolite combined Amethyst's whip with a large telekinetic orb water from the truck to form a 'water whip' hybrid weapon, which consisted of a whip made of water, which diverged into three smaller whips at the end (the far left and right of which were made of Amethyst's rubber whip material), everything of which had aquatic spikes on its sides. Iolite used this water whip to grab the flying gauntlet from the air and throw it back at Kornerupine. 

The gauntlet hit the larger fusion smack in the lower jaw. Kornerupine began to expand in size, and Iolite watched in horror as the unstable fusion added another seven-to-eight feet onto its height by sheer willpower alone. 

"Size augmentation," said Iolite through gritted teeth. Kornerupine used Garnet's 'electric jump' attack to send two semicircles of electricity from each of its gauntlets, but Iolite jumped in the air and used the three smaller whips that diverged from her main water whip to slash Kornerupine's face. Blood trickled down the three horizontal cuts on the larger gem's left cheek, and the damage caused Kornerupine to return to normal size. 

Kornerupine charged at Iolite with Bloodstone's helmet extended forward, but Iolite defused the water whip into Amethyst's whip and a large orb of water, before combining the water with Pearl's spear to create a massive staff, which Iolite held horizontally to block the attack. 

Kornerupine tried to hit Iolite with her three right arms but the latter Gem used the staff's back end to hit Kornerupine across the side of her face, thus knocking the larger Gem off balance. Iolite defused the massive staff back into its original components and combined Pearl's spear with Amethyst's whip to create Opal's bow, which she instantly used to fire an arrow at Kornerupine. The arrow had little effect, as the monstrous Kornerupine caught it with Garnet's left gauntlet. 

Despite the recent return back her original size, Kornerupine was still massive, and she removed Peridot's sword from Bloodstone's hybrid helmet before charging Iolite. Iolite sidestepped out of the blades reach, kicked it into the air, avoided Kornerupine trying to hit her with her three left arms and slamming her right arm into the ground, before Iolite jumped in the air and used the larger, more vicious fusions chest as a launchpad. 

Iolite jumped in the air, and slammed her feet into her opponents chest in a drop kick that sent her flying back twenty feet. While in mid air, she took advantage of the quadruple fusion's stunned state and summoned a massive arrow of water, which she instantly fired at the behemoth of a fusion in front of her. The water arrow diverged into six more water arrows: five of which hit the quadruple fusion in the corners and center of her chest, and one of which hit her in the face. 

Kornerupine instantly began to lose her physical form from a combination of Iolite's water arrows, the damage dealt throughout the fight, and the instability of the fusion itself. It released its energy in a constant stream as its whole body was consumed with light, and eventually, the fusion exploded, and Jasper, Peridot and Garnet all fell to the ground. 

Iolite gracefully defused, and Amethyst, Pearl and Lapis all ran to help Peridot, Jasper and Garnet respectively. 

The three examined the devastation of the fight that they caused, before Garnet spoke first: "We are never, ever, doing that again."


	10. Chapter 10: Amazonite

Steven found himself standing in a dark, hard place, almost like a jail cell. Upon gaining full consciousness, he realized he was standing up, and the cell was freezing. He let out a shiver and reached his arms towards his stomach, before wrapping his arms around his chest to keep himself warm. 

Steven looked around. The room was rather bland. It had a few spots and diamond patterns on the walls, but besides this, there was virtually no diversity between the various parts of the space. Steven stepped forward, then to the side, only for his foot to promptly land on a square-shaped panel. He looked down on it, but a slit opened from the ceiling. Steven was alerted to the presence of a small, hovering projector being lowered out of the slit by a buzzing sound of what Steven presumed to be the projectors motors. The projector's camera extended forward, and it projected a video of Peridot onto the wall. 

'So that's why the walls are so blank' thought Steven. 'So the video can appear clearly'. 

As Steven thought this, two things occurred: first, another slit opened, this time from the ground, and a metal pillar extended out of it, clutching a pink diamond with its two claws firmly in its grip. Steven instantly recognized this from his adventures with Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl 14 months ago after Garnet had her fight with Pearl and they chased Peridot to a Homeworld Gem. This pink diamond was used by Peridot to communicate with and trap the other gems. 

The second thing that occurred was far more surreal; on the video, Peridot pulled out a tape recorder and began speaking into it. 

"Log Date 7 15 2", Peridot said into the recorder. 

_____________________________________________________________________________

Steven woke up with a start. He was relived to find he was back in his room, in the Crystal Temple, in Beach City, and not in the ship of his nightmare. Steven instantly heard arguing, and he jumped down from his bed onto the cold wooden tiles of his floor. He looked downwards to the living room, where the arguing was occurring. "All I'm saying," said Peridot, "is that we might be able to salvage some equipment from the ship."

"Why would that help us at all?" questioned Garnet, who stood a menacing six inches taller then the green gem, even with her limb enhancers.

"To enforce security," said Pearl, defending Peridot. "If we efficiently use some of the electrical netting and lasers that Peridot originally used against us, we could prevent any more rogue gems from escaping."

"This is stupid," stated Lapis Lazuli, who was drinking her morning coffee in the corner. "Pearl and Amethyst released some of the Gem shards from a Rose Quartz bubble all those months ago," she said while pointing an accusing finger at the slender white Gem, "and we wouldn't be here having this conversation is Peridot's grand 'Laser Light Cannon Replacement' didn't malfunction."

"She does have a point there," said Garnet.

"Come on," said Amethyst, while she accusingly turned towards the Crystal Gem leader standing to her left and opposite Peridot, "Pearl was the one that popped that bubble."

"For the last time, Amethyst," said Pearl with annoyance and exhaustion in her voice, "we've been over this; we both had a part to play in popping that bubble."

"No matter who deems who blame worthy," said Garnet while she removed her visor, "we all had a part to play in this, big or small. The important thing is that we don't cause unnecessary danger to Steven or anyone else in this family."

Everyone unanimously agreed that no risks that would affect Steven would be taken as long as they caused him harm, but the purple Quartz Gem proposed a differnet alternative. "Why don't we just vote on it?"

"But Garnet just said-" began Lapis, but she was almost instantly cut off by the smaller gem.

"I know, I know," said Amethyst while all eyes turned to her, "but instead of having Garnet decide if its safe enough for Steven, lets have him judge it himself. Besides, he saved our butts countless times the first time we went into that ship."

"She has a point," began Pearl, "but then we would be right back to where we started if we brought Steven into this; our even number of people voting would make deciding impossible if three of us voted for exploring the ship and three voted against it."

"Which," declared Peridot, "is why we should bring Jasper into this. We've already heard Garnet's opinion on the subject, so assuming that she counts as one person despite her fusion status, if we brought Jasper and Steven in, we would have an odd number of people to vote."

__________________________________________________________________

"I'm confused," Jasper admitted as she and Steven stood side-by-side next to Garnet, "why are Steven and I voting?"

"Because-," began Garnet, but she was rudely cut off by Peridot.

"Because," said the emerald gem, "we want Steven to have a say in this matter, but if we did that, then we would have an even number of people voting, which would be disastrous if each half of us voted for and against going to the ship. Naturally, we brought you in to bring the voting back to an odd number of people."

"Now that we got that out of the way," said Garnet while glaring at Peridot without her visor, "all against salvaging supplies at the ship."

Three hands raised at the same time: Garnet's, Lapis's, and Jasper's. 

"All in favor," said the fusion gem.

This time, four hands were raised: Pearl's, Amethyst's, Peridot's, and the youngest of the bunch, Steven. 

Lapis groaned as Garnet sighed, and Pearl cheerfully declared. "Its settled! We're going back to the ship, and Steven's coming with us."

_______________________________________

The seven gems all crawled through the narrow and mucky metallic doorway of the ships central weapon's room. 

"If I remember correctly," said Peridot while she used her left arm limb enhancer to move a piece of rubble so she and Amethyst could crawl through the entrance it made, "the weapons room is straight ahead, and from an entrance on its left side, the control room is directly across."

"Peachy," said Lapis as her shoulders and chest rubbed against some of the moist swamp goo that was sticking to the sides of the wall, "just what I needed: more gunk to get on my dress after that last hallway."

"You can control water," said Amethyst as she trailed behind Peridot and in front of Steven and Pearl, "so what's the problem? Just move it out of your way."

"Amethyst," said Jasper as her broad shoulders came in contact with some of the material Lapis previously encountered, "I don't know what this is, but it's not water."

"It is some kind of plant material," said Pearl as her index and middle finger trailed along the wall she and Steven were currently cramming through.

"I'm through," declared Garnet at the front of the line, "and Peridot's right; there's a wide door on the left of the room."

"Told ya clods," said Peridot, which earned her shoulder punches from Lapis and Jasper.

One by one, the Crystal Gems squeezed through the slightly wider exit of the hallway and into the arsenal room of the ship. Lapis, Jasper, Amethyst and Pearl looked in awe at the walls, which were lined with axes, sharpened sword akin to those that Pearl used, and a variety of technologically advanced items, such as Gem Destabilizers, ray guns with packages of concentrated energy, and what appeared to be the Homeworld Gem equivalent of many commonplace and advanced human tools, such as hammers, blowtorches, screwdrivers, and metal cutters. 

"Let's keep moving," Jasper called out next to the door. The group walked through a dense patch of mud, sticks, leaves, and muck in front of the entrance, and Jasper was the first through. Once again, Peridot was right: this entryway was much shorter and (thank goodness) wider then the previous one. The group all walked through it with relative ease, with Steven holding Lapis and Pearl's hands. The two slender Gems smiled at him, and he walked with a carefree bounce in his steps. 

After Steven, Lapis, Pearl and Amethyst walked into the room, with all the other Gems in front of them, Garnet noticed something. 

"Gems!" she shouted while pointing to the mechanical door, which was now closing, "we're getting sealed in!!" Pearl and Jasper sprinted towards the door to open them up, with Garnet and Amethyst shortly behind. Pearl tried to pull on the right door, but her struggles her virtually no effect. Garnet grabbed the right door, and Jasper the left, and they viciously pulled on the door edges in vain. 

Steven, acting quickly, summoned his shield, which he threw with a large woundup. The shield slammed firmly into the gap between both doors at a diagonal angle. Garnet, Jasper, Amethyst and Pearl all turned around and smiled at Steven. 

"Good work Quartz," congratulated Jasper as Garnet and Pearl pulled him into a hug. "Way to go Steven" said Lapis, while Pearl congratulated him on acting on his feet. 

Suddenly, the door began to close again, and it broke through the shield. Peridot, Lapis and Amethyst all rushed to the door to pry to open, but to no affect. Garnet shot her gauntlet into the slot between the doors to hold them open, but like Steven's shield, it was crushed. 

"Darn," said Jasper. The Gems looked at each other, then at Garnet, who, with a sigh, declared "lets just get this job done."

Pearl and Peridot looked at one another; after all, it was their fault they were here, and now, they would have to spend some time looking for another exit. Lapis tapped Amethyst and Pearl on the shoulder and pointed to a cube in the middle of the control panel. "I think that's what we need to deactivate the electric netting so we can get out of here," said the ocean gem.

"Good thinking," said Amethyst. Lapis blushed at the comment, and Pearl turned to Garnet. "Garnet," said the spear-wielding Gem, "I think this is what we need to shut down the electriacl netting so we can get out of here."

Garnet nodded in agreement before turning to Peridot. Peridot nodded her head in agreement before proclaiming "even better, this cube, when removed while disable the entire security system."

Lapis summoned her wings and flew over Pearl, Peridot and Amethyst in front of the cube. She reached for it, but Garnet grabbed her hand. "Wait," said Garnet, "I'm the only one with electrokinesis, and I have protective gauntlets. Let me."

Lapis hesitated, then turned toward Peridot and Pearl. Both nodded their heads in agreement. Lapis sidestepped, allowing Garnet to move towards the cube and allowing Pearl to stand by her left side. Garnet gestured towards the gemstone in the middle of Jasper's face where her nose should be, and the Quartz soldier got the message. She summoned her helmet for protection, and stood next to Garnet and Lapis, who was on Garnet's right. 

Garnet grabbed the cube, but suddenly, a surge of electricity emitted from the cube. A bolt of electricity hit Garnet in the face, and she almost instantaneously defused into Sapphire and Ruby, the latter of which was instantly poofed due to her taking the bulk of the electrical damage. Pearl, in one swift motion, summoned her spear from her forehead-located gemstone, and used its blade to block a large chunk of the excess electrical damage. Pearl and Sapphire, the latter of which was holding onto Ruby's gem, were thrown back from the control panel. Lapis jumped in the air and avoided most of the electrical strikes, but one hit her right shoulder. Two bolts came at Jasper, and she knocked one back with her left forearm and one with her helmet. 

The electricity disintegrated most of the rusted walls, ceiling, and floor, thus causing rubble to fall. A piece of the panel that was launched at Peridot's shin was instantly blocked by Steven, who removed his shield in the blink of an eye. 

Jasper pushed Steven out of the way and held up a massive piece of the the ceiling that tumbled with the impulse. "Go!!!" shouted Jasper. "Go, Steven! I got this!!" The young Quartz Gem nodded in approval, grabbed Peridot's hand, and ran. 

Suddenly, Steven noticed that Sapphire and Pearl were on the ground. "Garnet! Pearl!" he cried. The young gem ran over to Sapphire, who had lost her grip on Ruby's gemstone during the impact of her landing, and Pearl. Suddenly, the cube began to glow, and Jasper dropped the metallic ceiling piece and ran over to grab it at the same time Lapis did. Both Gems were knocked back by the cube exploding, which tore through the panel and the floor around it. Jasper, being on the cubes right side, was knocked back to the right side of the room, but Lapis, who was on the left side, flew into the left wall's fallen pipes and bounced back to Steven's side, all while Pearl and Sapphire were just regaining consciousness in the center of the room. 

Lapis hit the ground, and Amethyst ran to her aid, when suddenly, the rusty floor around Amethyst began to break away. Jasper leaped in the air and pulled Amethyst away. The explosion had disintegrated about 90% of the floor in the middle of the room, miraculously leaving Pearl, Sapphire, and Ruby's gem intact. This floor disintegration had split the room in half via a rift between the two halves. 

"Amethyst! Jasper!" screamed Peridot across the room, "are you guys okay!?!"

Peridot used her limb-enhancers helicopter to fly across the rift dividing the floor. She landed next to Amethyst, but the Quartz Gem replied with a "I'm fine! But Garnet's defused!"

Peridot looked over at Sapphire, who was now frantically being held onto by Pearl, and Pearl herself, who was looking for Ruby's gem. Suddenly two pieces of rubble fell from the collapsing ceiling: one that separated Steven, Lapis, Pearl, and Sapphire from Jasper, Peridot and Amethyst; and one that would've crushed Steven had Lapis not used some of the leaking swamp water to make two massive hands to hold up the boulder rubble. 

"Steven!" cried Lapis as she struggled to hold up the rubble, "the electricity disintegrated part of the wall to your right! Get Sapphire and Pearl and get out of here!"

"I can't leave you!" said the young Quartz. 

"I'll be fine!" screamed Lapis over the noise of rocks falling. 

Steven cautiously nodded his head in agreement, as if any slight motion would make his friend lose her concentration and get crushed, and he turned towards Sapphire and Pearl. 

"Ruby!" screamed Sapphire. "Where's her gem!??!"

"I found it," said Pearl whilst plucking the red gemstone from the ground. Pearl grabbed Sapphire's chest in one hand, lifted her up with Ruby's gem in the other, and ran towards Steven. 

"Steven! Lapis! Are you two okay!"

"I said get out of here!" called Lapis. "I can't hold this up forever. Get out through the hole the cube made!"

"Sapphire!" said Steven, "are you alright? Do you have Ruby's gem?"

"I have it," Pearl said stoically whilst holding up the scarlet square facet gemstone. Sapphire, Pearl and Steven all ran to the hole, but suddenly, a third batch of rubble fell to the ground, covering the whole. Pearl and Steven leaped into action, despite Steven's childishness. He summoned his shield and began chipping away at the rock, but Pearl had difficulty summoning her weapon and Sapphire just stood in shock. 

"I can't summon my spear," cried Pearl. "What happened," Steven said horrified. 

"A bolt of lightning hit her gem," said Sapphire. "It's messing with her ability to summon her personal weapon."

Thinking quickly, Pearl grabbed a smaller stone and began beating the rubble in her and Steven's path, just as Steven is doing with his shield, all while Lapis continued to hold up the rubble that would kill Steven and poof all the gems if she released it. 

"There's only one way we can do this," Pearl said desperately as she turned towards Sapphire and Lapis. "We gotta form Sodalite."

________________________ (On the other side of the room)

Amethyst and Jasper rammed into the wall that separated the two of them and Peridot from the other side of the ship. Amethyst sprinted behind Jasper and Peridot as the three tried to escape the ship. Amethyst leaped in front of Peridot and above Jasper and flagellated her whip, slicing open part of the hallway. 

"We gotta go back for the others!" cried Peridot

"They have Lapis," replied Jasper. "Until then, the whole ships coming apart, and we gotta get the heck out of here!!"

______________________

Sapphire's right-handed triangular facet gemstone began to glow a brilliant, magnificent light blue as the fusion dance process begun. She danced and slid towards Lapis, who was now telekinetically controlling the water and had her arms free. Lapis slid towards Pearl, and the former dipped her. Pearl lifted Sapphire up by her hands, spun her around, and grabbed Lapis's waist, and Pearl lifted her leg up. Sapphire positioned herself on Pearl's shoulder as a blue light consumed Lapis, Pearl and herself. 

Sodalite appeared, but during the fusion process, Lapis's telekinetic control of the water faded. The rubble fell back down to the ground, but Sodalite grabbed it. 

Her appearance combined traits of Moonstone, Pearl and Sapphire. She was tall, roughly Opal height, with wide hips and legs to match, with a flurry of shoulder length light blue hair with orange streaks in it. Sodalite's hair was brushed to one side, covering two of her five ocean-colored eyes, and she had golden earrings on her left ear and three silver studs in her right ear. 

Sodalite threw the rubble in the air, and lifted her hand in the air, thus summoning a massive pillar of water to hold it up while she cleared an entryway for Steven and herself. Sodalite summoned her weapon: a massive staff similar to the one the Lapis and Pearl summoned as Iolite, complete with the handle and middle being made from Pearl's spear and reinforced with Lapis's water, but with a blunt end with sharpened diamonds that was constructed from Sapphire's brass knuckles. The fusion briefly looked at the red gemstone in Steven's left palm, which Pearl had quickly given him before the fusion dance, and the faint remnants of a smile crossed her face as she whispered the name of Sapphires lover as one: "Ruby". 

Sodalite, while still holding the rubble in place with her water, jabbed the rocks blocking her and Steven's exit, thus creating a massive hole for Steven to walk through. She wound up a hit with her staff like a baseball player, and smacked the brass knuckle-end into the rock and metal, making the hole big enough for herself to walk through. As Steven watched the whole process in awe, Sodalite crouched down on her stomach, crawled through the gap she made and allowed Steven to come through. 

Sodalite breathed a sight of exhaustion, before defusing. Sapphire and Lapis instantly collapsed to the ground, and Pearl followed shortly afterwards. The deafening sound of the rubble falling back down to the ground without any telekinetic water holding it up briefly woke Sapphire from her exhaustion, but she and Pearl soon found themselves asleep from the strain of fusing and their own injuries. Steven looked at the gem in his hand, before Lapis called his name. 

"Steven," she said in a low hushed voice, which sounded like it was from over usage of her voice, but Steven knew it was because she just spent the last several minute using her powers to stop him from being crushed. 

"We need to get out of here," she said through wheezed breathes. Steven put Ruby's gemstone in his pocket, before declaring "I got Sapphire. You get Pearl."

Despite Lapis nodding in agreement, Steven felt excruciatingly awful that his friend had to do anything; after all, she just channeled all of her strength and willpower in one continuous effort to save him and his family. 

Steven picked up Sapphire in a bridal-carrying position, and Lapis struggled to do the same with Pearl, before simply carrying the spear-wielding white Gem on her shoulders. The two only got four steps carrying their family when Jasper burst through the adjacent hallway wall using her crash helmet, and Amethyst followed shortly after, and then Peridot. 

"Oh thank goodness," said Lapis as she fell to her knees. Amethyst ran over and took the unconscious Sapphire from Steven's arms. 

Jasper rushed to Lapis's side, and the ocean gem simply looked at the soldier before asking "Pearl?"

"We got her," said Jasper as she picked up both Pearl and Lapis. "Don't worry, Lazuli."

Suddenly, a massive shaking of the ship brought all remaining conscious Gems to attention. "A rogue corrupted Gem must've gotten lose. Maybe two."

For the first time in his life, Steven turned to Jasper and saw that she was legitimately worried. Scared even. "We've got to get them out of here," she said. 

Lapis smiled as sleep began to take hold of her. Jasper passed her off to Peridot, who grabbed her in her arms in the same style that Steven, Jasper and Sapphire had been doing. Steven began running out the hallway, knowing the other Gems were behind him and Ruby was in his pocket, but the others caught up to him. Steven didn't resist as Jasper plucked Steven from the ground like a grape and placed him on her shoulder

Jasper ran with Pearl in her arms and Steven on her left shoulder, while Amethyst ran behind her with Sapphire, and Peridot with Lapis. All around them, the ship slowly fell apart. It was only as they reached the ships escape pod exit did Steven realize this was the ship from his dream last night.

___________________________

Jasper, Peridot and Amethyst ran out of the ships exit carrying Steven, Pearl, Sapphire and Lapis. The trembling noise started again, but this time twice as loud. 

"We need to get back to the warp pad," said Amethyst. 

"It's just across this patch of swamp," replied Jasper as she hurdled over a mossy log. 

Suddenly, a massive green monster with limb proprtions identical to the other Gems (two legs and two arms) burst out of the water. 

"What the heck is that!!" screamed Steven from Jasper's shoulder. 

As the sprinting of the other Gems intensified, Peridot replied with "It's a corrupted form of Chrysocolla! It's a corrupted Gem created thousands of years ago in high pressure or high temperature areas. They're Gems were poofed hundreds of years ago, but they are just now regenerate, and in a monstrous and more powerful form."

"Just what we needed," groaned Amethyst. 

Jasper stopped running and faced the Chyrsocolla coming towards them. He put Steven and Pearl down, the former of which looked at her questioningly and the latter of which was still passed out, and got in a battle position, before rolling into her spin attack at the monster. The monster punched Jasper, but the orange Gem rebounded from a stump that it slammed into back into her starting position. 

Amethyst growled and set down Sapphire, before jumping over her and whipping her purple energy whip at the monster. It caught her whip with its left hand, but Amethyst pulled herself up on the whip and went flying at the beast. She leaned in to punch it, but the creature swatted her away. While flying back, Amethyst threw the end of her whip around the tree Jasper slammed into, and she used to to spin herself back in the air, pulling off part of the log in the process. 

While in midair, Amethyst threw the log at the Chyrsocolla monster, which hit it in the face. While tumbling through the air, Amethyst grabbed a splinter of the log and tried to slash Chyrsocolla's neck, but she fell to fast and missed, before hitting the ground behind the monster with a hard thud.

Peridot jumped in the air and used her helicopter on her limb enhancer to fly up, bringing her level to Chyrsocolla's face, which she shot with her limb enhancers. Chyrsocolla picked one of the wood splinters from her face and threw it at Peridot, which hit the blade of her helicopter and threw her off balance. 

Jasper leaped in the air and grabbed Peridot, before grabbing the side of the three to slow their combined fall. Upon landing on the ground, Jasper rolled into a ball and spun towards the Gem monster, before spinning around her right shin and hitting it at the same time Amethyst spun into its left shin. 

The monster fell to the ground, but suddenly, a second Currupted Gem Monster rose from the pond behind Chyrsocolla and grabbed it by the neck. 

"Holy smokes," whispered Peridot as she shielded Steven with her right arm limb enhancer. 

"Peri," said Amethyst while in shock, "I think I found our other Corrupted Gem."

The second Gem monster grabbed Chyrsocolla by the neck and reached for its Gem on its shoulder, but Chyrsocolla simply swatted the monsters hand away and grabbed its chest, before throwing it in front of it. 

It landed directly in front of the team, and Amethyst and Jasper shielded the still unconscious Pearl, Sapphire and Lapis from anything that might come their way, but the second monster ignored them. 

Steven checked his pocket to make sure he still had Ruby's gemstone. He reached in, and with a sigh of relief, pulled it out safely. 

The second monster, a brown-ish beast with three legs and one arm, lunged at Chyrsocolla. The two collided, and they were consumed in a black light. 

"Is it...trying to fuse with the Chyrsocolla monster?" asked Jasper.

"It sure looks like it," said Amethyst.

The resulting Corrupted Gem fusion emerged from the patch, and it stared at the group, before charging them. It was ferocious, with two Black Opal gemstones on its left shoulder and right thigh, and it had obsidian colored skin with patches of white, light grey and brown on its back. It had two muscular legs and three arms; two on its left side and one on its right.

"Amethyst, try to restrain it," said Jasper

"Right."

Jasper grabbed Amethyst, jumped ten feet in the air, and threw her at the Black Opal monster. Amethyst summoned two energy whips in midair before landing on a pine growing from a small pond in the middle of the swamp. She threw one of the whips at Black Opal's upper left arm, and tied the other end to the tree, before jumping back next to her place in front of Jasper.

Amethyst gracefully landed next to the orange Quartz, who looked at her and Peridot before letting out a vicious "All right Gems. Let's end this."

Jasper's orange gem located where her nose should be instantly started to glow, as did Peridot's triangular gemstone on her forehead above her visor, and Amethyst's on her chest. Jasper stomped her foot thrice in a rhythm, before twirling her arms and locking them in place, each facing upwards at a forty-five degree angle. Peridot twirled herself on the tip toes of her left foot, before Jasper grabbed her chest and stopped her. Jasper hooked her arm beneath Peridot and threw her above her. Amethyst gracefully slid her hand threw her hair, threw her arms back, and ran to Jasper. She grabbed onto Jasper's stiff right arm, as Peridot landed on Jasper's right side. The three were consumed in a turquoise-green light, and an Alexandrite-sized Gem emerged.

Amazonite had long, turquoise hair with blue streaks, five eyes (one purple, one green, three turquoise), and a yellow back with brown blotches towards the base of her spine, as well as one leg that's purple, and one that's orange and green. She had three pairs of arms, like most triple and some quadruple Gems.

"Stay back Steven," said Amazonite in her deep, soothing voice. She pulled Amethyst's whip from the gem on her chest, and tapped the gem where her nose should be, summoning Jasper's crash helmet to her head. She held both in her uppermost hands, before throwing Jasper's helmet in the sky with her uppermost right hand. She threw Amethyst's whip at it, and the end of the cord wrapped around the base of the helmet, creating a slingshot.

Before the helmet end of the slingshot even reached the ground, Amazonite spun it around and slammed it into Black Opal, who was struggling to rip Amethyst's whip from its place and free herself. The impact of the heavy end of the slingshot did just that, as well as completely shatter the tree and crash into Black Opal's face in an affect similar to Sugilite's flail.

Amazonite brought the helmet end of the slingshot back to her and wrapped it around the handle end of Amethyst's whip, where she summoned Peridot's short sword and placed it in the little groove of Jasper's helmet where her head would go, before swinging the slingshot forward and throwing the blade into Black Opal's chest.

Black Opal ripped out the blade, before stretching her left arms with elasticity towards Steven and the Crystal Gem fusion. Amazonite shot laser-like bolts of energy from her eyes, before firing a blast of yellow and blue energy from Amethyst's gem. The crimson colored eye lasers shot into the Corrupted Gem fusion's chest, and the beam from Amethyst's chest gemstone completely obliterated its left arms.

Amazonite summoned a ball of electricity from Peridot's gem, which fell into the slingshot. She threw it at Black Opal, which hit the Corrupted Gem's right kneecap, forcing her to the ground, before sprinting and pouncing on the Gem Monster. The Gem monster instantly poofed into its two gems, which fell to the ground.

Amazonite lifted them up, bubbled them in a turquoise -blue bubble, and retracted the components of her gem weapons into Jasper and Amethyst's gems. She closed her eyes, and allowed a stillness to come over her, before a pillar of light came from her body and she dissipated, leaving Jasper, Peridot and Amethyst in her place.

Steven looked at his Gem family in pride, before asking "have you guys practiced that before?"

Jasper shared glances with Amethyst and Peridot, before Amethyst replied with "only a little."

"We practice more with our double-Gem fusions," said Peridot.

Steven turned to Jasper, who looked past the Quartz-human hybrid and to the sleeping Gems. "Have you got Ruby's gemstone," asked Jasper.

Steven gave one solid nod, before Jasper exhaled a sigh of relief and said "Let's get these guys home."  
_____________________________

Steven sat in the living room with a blanket over his lap and a cup of Jasper's hot chocolate on the coffee table in front of him. To his left sat Lapis, who herself was passed out from the events on the ship. To his right was Amethyst, who was wide awake staring at the resting Pearl on a chair, unwilling to take her eyes off her after she was zapped by electricity and nearly crushed by rubble. Peridot was doing the same thing with Lapis, watching her and making sure she was okay. Peridot and Amethyst each had a cup of hot chocolate from Jasper, and just like Steven, it was equally neglected in favor of watching over friends and family. 

Jasper was in the kitchen, sitting on one of the stools. Sapphire stood across her, watching Ruby's gemstone in her palm. Ruby almost always was the first to wake up when they were poofed, so it was a surprise that when just Ruby was poofed, she isn't awake yet, but the electricity must've done a number on her.

Finally, Amethyst couldn't take the silence. She turned her whole body towards Peridot, who sat adjacent to her on one of the chairs the Gem's purchased, and asked her "What even happened back there?"

Peridot simply stared in confusion at Amethyst, at the watching Steven, then back at Amethyst, before asking "What do you mean?"

Amethyst got up, grabbed her hot chocolate from the coffee table next to Steven's in the process and said "I mean, why did the cube explode? Why did those two Corrupted Gems fuse? None of this makes any sense. I thought that cube was supposed to solve our problems."

Jasper, now interested in the conversation, turned herself towards Peridot. Feeling both pairs of eyes on her, Peridot said "I guess...I guess the cube acted as a power source for the security netting, right. So when we removed it, I expected it to shut down, but instead, all that energy which had been left there for hundreds of years was released."

"But what about that Corrupted Gem?"

"I," began the green Gem, but she caught herself. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"I mean," said Amethyst as she sat back down in her chair, "why did those two Gems fuse."

"Well," said Peridot as she stroked her chin, "I think they fused together because we were a common enemy; we trespassed in both of their territory, and the only reason why the brown monster fought with the Corrupted Chyrsocolla in the first place was that the latter stumbled into his territory. Once they overcame their animal instincts, we became the only opponent."

"Oh," said Amethyst. Steven and Peridot stared awkwardly at each other, at Sapphire stroking Ruby's gemstone, and at the zoning out Jasper. Once Jasper caught their gaze, she awkwardly turned away.

Suddenly, Ruby's gemstone started to glow red. Sapphire stood up from her seat, and watched in awe as the square facet gem started to hover on the air. All the awake Gems (Jasper, Steven, Sapphire, Amethyst and Peridot) stared at the Gem, which then erupted in a flurry of deep scarlet light. The Gem started to form into a humanoid shape, which eventually took the form of Ruby.

The Gem formed part of the left palm of the Gem, and the newly reformed Gem fell to the ground. She now has a square on her headband, and a yellow star with a brown outline appeared on her right thigh.

As soon as the Gem hit the ground, Sapphire, Steven and Amethyst all charged into and enveloped the Gem in a right hug.

"We missed you so much," said Steven  
"I thought you'd never come back," said Sapphire  
"Don't ever scare us like that again," said Amethyst

Ruby squeezed the three Gems together in a tight hug.

"I missed you all," she said as she exhaled a sigh of relief.


	11. Chapter 11: Garnet vs Jasper

Jasper and Garnet walked out of the Burning Room, arguing over their latest mission.

"I can't believe you would be so reckless!" cried Garnet in disgust and anger. "How could you possibly endanger Pearl like that!"

"Well it's not my fault she didn't notice the corrupted gem!" cried Jasper in return. "I can't possibly keep track of every gem that goes out there with us. Nobody can! Not even you! And they call you a leader."

Garnet gritted her teeth, trying to resist the urge to cause more violence, but by this point, Jasper had already left and was trudging along to her room.

"Ugh!" cried Garnet in anger, "I can't believe she would be so willing to throw your life on the line!" she said while gesturing towards Pearl.

Pearl stood up from her spot on the couch and put a reassuring hand on Garnet. "Garnet, I know that we have been trying to be as welcome as possible, but Jasper... just doesn't seem cooperative."

"Hey," said Amethyst, standing up from her position on the couch, "just because you two can't get along with her doesn't mean we should kick her out. If that were out policy, we would have kicked Peridot out forever ago!"

Garnet and Pearl turned towards the shorter Quartz gem, and Garnet nodded in agreement. "Okay Amethyst," said Pearl towards the younger gem, "you're definitely right in this situation. But what do you propose we do now?"

"Just talk to her," Amethyst said while shrugging. "She may not be very polite, but she definitely understands the fundamental aspects of this team and of combat itself. She's a Quartz after all. She'll listen if you apologize."

"Garnet," said Pearl anxiously, "I'm not sure that's the best idea. You would be admitting that you were at fault here."

"It's just a pitiful argument," Garnet replied stoically. "It won't affect much." She turned her whole body to Amethyst and said, "thank you Amethyst. I don't know what I'd do if we didn't have another Quartz."

Amethyst shrugged reassuringly and returned to her spot in front of the television.

____________________________________________

Garnet walked into Jasper's room through the entrance from the Burning Room. Garnet strolled in to find Jasper sharpening her weapons. "What do you want, fusion."

"I came to apologize," said Garnet while bowing her head. "My anger towards you was inexcusable. I hope you can forgive me."

Jasper let out a belly laugh. "Oh this is rich. Amethyst probably suggested this."

"Jasper, you're not making this easy."

"Nothings easy with you two love birds leading us," replied Jasper.

Garnet gritted her teeth and balled her fists together. "Jasper, don't make me do this."

"Do what? Let me ask you something Garnet: why is it that you're leading instead of, say, me. Why is it that I, a Quartz gem and a legitimate soldier, is being outranked by a spoiled, aristocratic brat and her bodyguard."

This time, Garnet didn't hesitate, and she threw her blow back in a wind-up position, summoning her gauntlet onto her fist in the process, and punched her. Jasper growled as she slammed into one of her weapon racks, but had a smile on her face. "Ya know," said Jasper whilst cracking her neck summoning her crash helmet, "a workout would be nice."

Garnet scowled at Jasper as the latter gem charged towards her. Garnet avoided her first barrage of miniature attacks, but Jasper swung her arm around and firmly hit Garnet in the chest, sending her flying across Jasper's room into a pile of weapons. Garnet picked up a hatchet and tossed it at Jasper, but Jasper deflected it with her helmet. Garnet pulled a knife of the weapon rack and leaped at Jasper.

Jasper got knocked backwards at the sheer force of Garnet's lunge, but Jasper elbowed the red gem in the face, thus shattering her visor. Garnet growled at the larger gem and kneed her in the stomach, but Jasper countered by blocking the move with her wrists and grabbing Garnet's leg, before throwing the smaller gem into a wall.

Jasper picked up two spears and threw on at Garnet. Garnet ducked at the last second, and the spear got driven into the wall. Garnet stabbed the knife she was using into the wall, and grabbed both the spear and knife handles to help pull her up.

Jasper charged at Garnet with the spear, but Garnet pulled herself up and the spear missed, and Garnet kicked Jasper in the face. Jasper rolled into a ball and slammed into Garnet with her spin attack. Garnet threw Jasper upwards, but the orange gem rolled back into a ball in mid-air and slammed into Garnet vertically, pushing both threw the hard rock floor of Jasper's room and into the tunnels below.

Jasper and Garnet landed on one of the rock ledges in the vertical tunnel. There was a second's hesitation as both gathered themselves after the 20-foot fall before Garnet lunged at Jasper. Jasper, still on her stomach, rolled away at the last second. Jasper jumped on her feet and picket up a large stone next to her, which she threw at Garnet. Garnet dodged it, grabbed another rock, and threw it at Jasper, who smashed it into pieces with her helmet in one headbutt.

Garnet leaned down and pressed her hands on the ground, and a surge of electricity traveled along the ground and towards Jasper in small half-circles. Jasper jumped out of the way just in time and onto a higher platform, and Garnet followed suite.

A variety of weapons had fallen down from the upper levels of Jasper's room onto the ledges. Garnet picked one of them up, a mace a few inches longer then Pearl's spear, and swung it at Jasper, but Jasper ducked, picked up a throwing knife and tossed it towards Garnet. Garnet side-stepped away from the knife's trajectory just in time, but the blade skimmed Garnet's face, leaving a cut on her cheek.

Garnet used a nearby boulder as a Launchpad and lunged at Jasper. Jasper blocked Garnet's mid-air kick and punched her in the face, sending her off the ledge. Garnet grabbed the walls and her descent declined, but Jasper leaps after her. Garnet jumped out of the way and climbs to the top of the tunnel as Jasper throws boulders at her.

Garnet leaps onto the ceiling of the tunnel and punches at the stalactites, causing them to fall down and hit Jasper. Jasper punches them away, but a stray piece of debris hits her in the throat, knocking her off balance. Garnet leaps from her vantage point on the ceiling at Jasper, lands directly on her, throwing Jasper off the platform.

The two gems get caught in freefall, before they land in the burning room. Garnet jumps from the air, but Jasper pulls on of the vines off the walls. She whips at Garnet, and the vine wraps around her chest before Jasper throws Garnet threw the wall.

Garnet crashed through the wall and into Peridot's room. Jasper runs in and punches at Garnet, but she misses and hits the entrance control panel, accidentally causing the doors to open. Jasper drop-kicks Garnet out the door of Peridot's room and she lands in the tunnel, and Jasper leaps after her.

Garnet and Jasper wrestled on the floor as the other five gems ran up to them. Pearl jumped in front of Jasper, but the larger gem knocked her away with ease. Steven summoned his shield and threw it as Garnet. It bounced off her face, hit the nearby stone wall and rebounded into Jasper, thus throwing the latter gem off balance.

Amethyst jumped between Garnet and Jasper as Garnet charged at the orange gem, but Jasper knocked her away at the last second. Garnet punched at Jasper, but Jasper leaned her head down to block Garnet's attack. The force of Garnet's punch against Jasper's helmet caused a miniature shockwave that sent the gems flying back. Pearl summoned two spears, before throwing one at Jasper. Jasper blocked it with the rectangular front of her helmet, but Amethyst summoned her whip, which she wrapped around Jasper to immobilize her.

Lapis created an arm of water from a nearby pool and wrapped it around Garnet's torso as Steven grabbed onto her leg. Jasper and Garnet tried to struggle, but couldn't from both exhaustion and pain.

"Enough!" cried Steven as he held his hands out defensively. "Stop fighting you two!"

"Stop this madness!" cried Pearl as she held her spear to Jasper, then at Garnet. Steven let go of Garnet, and she fell to her knees and Jasper followed shortly. "I'm done," said the exasperated orange gem. Suddenly, Garnet kicked out at Lapis, causing the blue gem to fall on her stomach, and Garnet jumped up and lunged at Jasper while activating her electrokinesis.

With a surge of electricity flowing threw her gauntlet, Garnet grabbed Jaspers face and grounded her. Jasper's back viciously slammed into the stone, cold ground. This, combined with the electricity surging through Garnet's strike and the damage dealt to Jasper throughout the fight, led to Jasper poofing back into her gem.

Enraged, Peridot let out a screech and lunged at Garnet with her Gem-Destabilizer glove. Pearl jumped at Peridot and grabbed her hand, with the glove mere inches from Garnet's face and Garnet milliseconds from having been destabilized. Peridot struggled against Pearl's grip, but the taller gem refused to give. Lapis, taking advantage of the confusion, summoned a massive hand of water and slammed it into Garnet. The scarlet gem's physical form shattered instantly, leaving behind two gems: Ruby's red gem and Sapphire's blue gem.

Pearl, Peridot, Amethyst and Steven all stared in shock at the two gems on the floor. Peridot looked at Lapis in shock as Lapis gestured towards the door. Lapis walked away, and Peridot followed, holding Jasper's gem tightly.

"I'm not sure Jasper was the one that needed to be put down," said Peridot menacingly. Steven, shaking with fear behind a horrified Pearl and Amethyst, looked away from Ruby and Sapphire's gems. 

_____

It had been 30 minutes since Jasper's insurrection against Garnet. Jasper's room was connected to two different rooms by yellow and orange hallway's: Garnet and Amethyst's rooms. Steven ran down the scarlet trail leading to Garnet's Burning Room, and from there, down the yellow road to Jasper's room.

Steven slowed to a stop in front of the door to her room. Steven was about to knock on it when a blinding flash of light came from the space between the door and the floor. Steven, excited, ignored the formalities of entering the gems room and threw the door open.

There, he saw Jasper, in all of her buff, orange glory. She got up from her crouching position on the ground and waved her head to the side, then backwards. Her white mane flew backwards onto its usual position, clearing her vision and allowing her to see Steven clearly.

Jasper smiled at the young gem, before walking over to him and ruffling his hair. "Hey Ste-man."


	12. Chapter 12

Jasper emerged from the tunnels of Amethyst's room into her own room. "I need to go talk with Garnet," said Jasper softly. "Stay here or in Amethyst's room. Just don't come out."

"Are you going to hurt her?" asked Steven fearfully as he crouched into a ball.

"I would never hurt her unprovoked," said Jasper reassuringly, "but I don't want you to get hurt. Okay. If anything happens, I want you to run out of here and get your big sister, okay."

Steven nodded in agreement. He liked it when Jasper referred to Amethyst as his "big sister". It made him feel safer and calmer. Jasper knew this and was trying to get Steven to not worry about the inevitable conflict.

"I love you Ste-man," said Jasper with confidence. "Stay safe." And with that, the large gem ran out the door.

Peridot and Lapis were walking through the dark, narrow passage from Pearl's room that led into Peridot's room. Peridot walked cautiously through passage, holding an annoyed Lapis's hand in the process.

"Hey, Peri," said Lapis while jerking her hand away from the green engineer's grip, "can I have my hand back please?"

"Just a second Lazuli," Peridot replied flatly. Lapis rolled her eyes as the green gem reached the end of the tunnel, with a green wall at the end with a yellow star on it. Peridot reached into a double-layered golden toolbelt wrapped around her lower waist. She pulled out a screwdriver-like tool with a plastic red handle and a blade on the end. She jammed the tool into a slit, and the blade touched a button on the slit. Peridot reached for a pink control panel on the wall next to the green door and she touched the buttons labeled 1, 4 and 3. After this complex ritual, the door opened, revealing a secret entry into Peridot's basement.

"You can let go of my hand now Peri," said Lapis with a smirk. Peridot sighed, but obliged. "Now Lapis," said Peridot as she rummaged through some stray inventions and trash on the floor, "You know that I've been working on some inventions in here, right?"

Lapis rolled her eyes. "'Some', Peri. Try understatement of the year."

Peridot groaned, but reached for an invention on the crate next to her. "One of these inventions was designed from scrap metal and spare inventions from the crashed ship that Jasper and I brought here one year ago." Peridot pulled out a rubber glove with various circuits attached to it. 

"This looks like..."

"Yes," said Peridot, "I salvaged its parts from the remnants of Jasper's gem destabilizer." Peridot gestured to a similar device built into the right hand of her limb-enhancers. "I already have one. I want you to have this."

Lapis carefully picked up the device from Peridot's hand. "Why," she said. "We won't need this. Things aren't this bad."

"You don't understand Lazuli," said Peridot while sitting down at a nearby crate. "I destabilized Garnet. And she attacked Jasper. They're both probably healed by now...but both are angry, and confused, and...enraged. There will be conflict."

Lapis looked into Peridot's serious emerald-colored eyes. "Okay," she said as she took the glove, "I'll defend myself."

"I can't repeat this enough," said Peridot while pointing a cautious finger at Lapis's face, "but be careful. Jasper and I might've just started a war."

Pearl and Garnet trudged down the halls of Pearl's room that led into Lapis's river room. Pearl was furious; she had summoned both of her spears and she intended to confront Peridot and Jasper for their behavior against Garnet. The very fact that she and Amethyst together needed to restrain Jasper from hurting Garnet proved her point. They needed to confront Jasper after she reformed and make sure she didn't usurp leadership from Garnet.

"Calm down Pearl," said Garnet stoically. "How can you say that Garnet!" snapped Pearl. She looked at Garnet both terrified and horrified. Both of them stopped walking. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," replied the fusion. Pearl sighed and rubbed the tiredness of her eyes. "I...can honestly not believe that Jasper would do this."

"She's not completely responsible!" Garnet yelled. The latter gem turned around to face Pearl, who looked at her leader in return. "I'm not completely blameless. I hit first and I attacked her when she was restrained. She just instigated it." Garnet's visor was almost completely red to signify Ruby's influence, with only a sliver of light blue to represent Sapphire's authority and control. Pearl looked down to find Garnet's feet were emitting strong amounts of heat, thus burning black patches on the floor similar to what Ruby would do when she was annoyed or enraged.

"Let's just keep going," replied the annoyed white gem.

Both gems trudged along, each wondering different things: Pearl wondered where Amethyst was, while Garnet questioned her role in this conflict. They turned right three times and left once before they finally reached the navy blue door into Lapis's room. There were two blue buttons on the door, which Garnet pressed with each of her hands. The stone door slowly opened horizontally, revealing a smaller, glass door with a circular white gem in the upper-middle of it. Garnet sidestepped to the left, allowing Pearl to walk towards the glass door. She leaned down, exposing the smooth, white pearl gemstone on her forehead to the opposing white gem on the door. The white gem began to glow a pale blue, then a cyan color, before finally turning black. It opened, revealing Lapis's room.

Pearl and Garnet stepped in as Jasper walked through the opposing door. Jasper and Garnet glared at one-another and examined the other's new regeneration outfits.

The left side of Garnet's outfit was dark red and pink, and Sapphire's blue gem on her left palm distinguished with this. The right side of Garnet's outfit was made up of shades of pale and navy blue, differentiating from Ruby's crimson gem on Garnet's right palm. Jasper's tan and obstinate orange sleeveless combat shirt was replaced with a jet black, rubber, skin-tight outfit that had multiple white stripes and highlights along its back and arms.

Jasper summoned her crash helmet, and Garnet summoned her two gauntlets. Pearl prepared to use her two spears, holding one in her right hand halfway down the handle to prepare for close-quarters combat, while she held the other one upside-down in a much looser position with her elbow crocked, preparing to throw it should Jasper charge.

Before either of them could react, Lapis and Peridot walked out a tunnel on the other side of the river adjacent to the door that Pearl and Garnet entered through. Both were wearing Peridot's specialized gem-destabilizer gloves, but Peridot's was built into her limb-enhancer. Lapis lifted her hand and the water rippled. She walked off the trail of gravel she and Peridot were positioned on and approached the river.

Lapis walked across the water with ease as Peridot followed cautiously behind. Halfway across the raging river, Lapis lifted her left hand in front of her as she balled her right into a tight fist. The water surrounding her and Peridot began to spiral upwards, before it descended downwards in front of them. While both were still standing on the water as if it were a solid object, the rushing water moved forward, taking them with it, like an escalator staircase. Both gems landed on a boulder adjacent to Garnet and Jasper's positions.

"About time Lazuli," said Jasper as Lapis and Peridot walked over to the larger gems side. Peridot unsheathed her short sword from her gem and proceeded to take a combat position. Lapis waved her hand at Pearl, making a dramatic show of displaying Peridot's gem-destabilizer glove.

"I hope you won't need to use that," said Garnet through gritted teeth. Lapis smirked and shrugged before Jasper toke a step forward, with her dominant right foot in front of her left, ready to charge. Before either group of gems could react, a fourth door opened up, revealing Amethyst.

Amethyst looked stunned at the two groups of gems about to clash; Pearl and Garnet at her right, and everyone else on her left. "Amethyst," hissed Pearl through gritted teeth. Amethyst anxiously looked at her friends on the opposite side, specifically at Jasper. Jasper cocked her head to the left, gesturing towards Lapis and trying to signify.

Amethyst closed her eyes, considered her options, and walked to her left. "No," whispered Garnet loudly as she pumped her arms. Angered beyond belief, Pearl took a step backwards, slightly raised the hand holding her secondary spear in a throwing position, and chucked it at Lapis. The blue gem leaned backwards just in time, but the blade of the spear skimmed Jasper's cheek, leaving a small trail of orange blood on her cheek. Amethyst stood in front of Jasper as she and Peridot smirked. Amethyst turned around to face her family. "Sorry guys..." she whispered mournfully. Just as Jasper charged towards Garnet and Pearl, Amethyst flagellated her energy whip towards Jasper, which promptly wrapped around the larger Quartz's neck. Amethyst spun Jasper around as she charged, and Jasper barreled into Lapis.

Lapis slammed into the nearby boulder that she and Peridot arrived on. Her wrist bent at an odd angle, but she snapped it into place immediately. Peridot looked stunned, before her face turned to anger. She unveiled the laser gun attached to her wrist, which morphed to include a sniper scope. She fired a laser bolt at Amethyst, but Amethyst back-flipped away, dodging in and transitioning into a ball to preform her spin-attack. She landed on the ground and spun towards Peridot in a ball, but Jasper charged horizontally at Amethyst and smacked her into the nearby wall.

Without Jasper next to Lapis, Garnet took advantage of the opportunity; she lunged towards Lapis and landed a few feet away from the ocean gem. She rolled away from Lapis's downward kick and the slice of water targeted at her. Garnet dashed towards Lapis, and Lapis tried to grab the larger gem with her gem-destabilizer glove, but Garnet grabbed the ocean gems wrist, before twisting it and pulling the glove off her slender fingers.

Lapis summoned a monstrous arm of water from the river, which fell on Garnet. Garnet jumped out of the way, but the liquid arm turned ninety degrees, flicked its wrist forward and sent Garnet flying back to her position next to Pearl. Unfortunately for Lapis, Garnet still retained her grip on glove, which she promptly crushed in her gauntlets. Pearl threw one of her spears at Jasper, which bounced off her helmet and caused no effect. The spear landed in the soft gravel next to Peridot.

Lapis summoned a variety of water swords and spears from the river, which she shot at Garnet. Garnet punched all of them into non-existence, but Peridot fired a variety of laser shots at her. Pretty soon, both gems were ganging up on the fusion as she gracefully dodged every attack. Jasper wrestled on the ground with Amethyst, and the runt gem managed to slide beneath the orange gems legs. Amethyst leaped backwards, landed on Jasper's back, wrapped her whip around the larger Quartz-gem's neck, and used her back as a launching pad to leap forward. Amethyst's jump nearly suffocated the larger gem, but Peridot jumped over and severed the cord with her short sword.

Pearl bolted towards Lapis, but the water gem suspected the white gems movement and summoned a whip of water from her liquid projectiles. She whipped towards Pearl, but Pearl ducked at the last second. Lapis summoned water versions of Ruby, Sapphire and Pearl, which all lunged towards Amethyst and Pearl.

Pearl sliced the water version of her into quarters, but it proved futile, as each piece of her transformed into another water Pearl. Amethyst dodged the water Ruby's attacks and Garnet punched the water Sapphire. The water Sapphire regenerated from her attacks, and Garnet tried to punch the liquid counterpart to her component. Water Sapphire leaned backwards, avoiding the fusions attack, and jumped in the air. She summoned the water version of Sapphire's weapons, brass knuckles, and repeatedly punched towards Garnet, but the fusion dodged all of them. Realizing her attacks were futile against the fusion, Lapis redirected water Sapphire so she jumped at Garnet, used the fusions chest as a Launchpad, and leaped at Amethyst.

Amethyst suspected water Sapphire's attack and grabbed a boulder using her whip, which she threw at the water clone. Water Sapphire was obliterated by the attack instantly. Amethyst turned into her wrestler form and charged Peridot, but the green gem zapped Amethyst with her Taser. Peridot tried to destabilize Amethyst with her glove, but Amethyst deflected it with Pearl's spear that Jasper had deflected into the soft gravel earlier. Amethyst, while using Pearl's spear, came under fire from a barrage of attacks by both Water Ruby and Peridot, who was using her glove and short sword.

While Pearl was fighting both Jasper and the multiple water Pearls, Garnet, taking advantage of the situation and Lapis's distracted state, activated her "Electricity Hurricane": she placed her palms on the wet stone and channeled her electricity, she fired towards Lapis in one, long, thick bolt. Lapis saw it at the last second and summoned her water wings and flew away, but the electricity skimmed her leg, shocking her and knocking her out cold. Water Ruby and the water Pearl's disappeared instantly, and Amethyst, taking advantage of the situation, threw the spear at Peridot, who deflected it but knocked her off balance. Using the green gems stunned state to her benefit, Amethyst wrapped her whip around Peridot's neck and threw her at Jasper. Both gems crashed into a nearby boulder.

Pearl, with her two spears, jumped at Peridot and threw them, but Peridot dodged one and deflected the other with her short sword. Pearl summoned one more and began sparring against the green gem. Jasper was rushed by Garnet and Amethyst, who started repeatedly targeting her legs to immobilize her.

Unable to win against the green gem, Pearl yelled out to Amethyst while engaged in a spar. "Amethyst!!" she cried, "switch dance partners?"

Amethyst grinned and jumped backwards towards Peridot. She wrapped her whip around Peridot's wrist and summoned a surge of electricity through it. Peridot countered by grabbing the whip with her gem-destabilizer glove, sending electricity through the cord as well. The two flows of voltage met halfway down the whip, causing a massive explosion of power and energy. Both teams of gems went flying back.

Jasper helped Peridot up as Lapis began to get up from her spot and reach back into consciousness. Garnet grabbed Pearl and Amethyst's elbows and brought them to their feet. Gem's didn't need to sleep, but they could tire, and both teams of evenly-matched gems would soon be too exhausted to defend themselves.

"I think it's time we broke out the big guns," said Garet between pants of breath. She looked at Pearl, who glanced nervously at Amethyst and her leader. "Are you sure Garnet? I'm not sure Alexandrite is proper for a civil war."

"It's the only way," said Garnet stoically at the same time Amethyst cracked her knuckles and replied "we gotta beat em."

Pearl nodded in agreement. Jasper looked worriedly at Lapis and Peridot. "I think this calls for Axinite," said Lapis between breaths. Jasper and Peridot looked at her hesitantly, then at one-another before they nodded in agreement.

_______________________

Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl had begun their own, individual dances: Pearl has preforming a variety of ballet motions; Amethyst was spinning and side-stepping towards her comrades; and Garnet was preforming a variety of motions similar to her dance with Pearl to form Sardonyx.

Jasper, Peridot and Lapis preformed a similar series of motions that climaxed in Jasper grabbing the other two gem's hands with each of her own and pulling them towards her as Garnet did the same with Pearl and Amethyst.

The two groups of gems were consumed in two different lights: Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet came together in a blob of green light, while Lapis, Jasper and Peridot came together in a ball of light blue light. From these two lights emerged two fusions: Alexandrite and Axinite.

Alexandrite's appearance was largely unchanged; she still had a muscular appearance with six arms deriving from joins along her ribcage, and she still had messy hair, a secondary mouth, a pointed nose and dark, circular glasses. Despite her overall lack of changes, her color palette was still different from Garnet's recent regeneration: her chest was dark grey and black, her left leg was colored blue, her right leg was colored red, her lowermost pair of arms was dark red with black gloves, her middle set of arms was dark purple with stripes of violet and white along it, her uppermost pair of arms was white with grey gloves, and there were star cutouts on her knees

Axinite was shorter than Alexandrite, but her appearance was just as colorfully diverse. She had long, platinum, hair tied into two ponytails that drape down her shoulders with olive skin. She had three pairs of two arms, which when combined with her two legs, making for a total of eight limbs.

Axinite's chest was divided into three colors: the left side of her chest was a deep cobalt blue, while the right side of her chest was marigold orange with orange sky stripes. Axinite's right leg below the knee was an emerald green, while the rest of her right leg and her entire left leg was a dark forest brown. Axinite's uppermost pair of arms was lime green with grey gloves with red stars on them. Axinite's middle pair of arms was carrot colored with apricot with scarlet stripes running from her wrists to her shoulder. Finally, her lowermost pair of arms was light Winsor blue with jet black streaks on it that extend down to her legs.

Axinite summoned Jasper's helmet to her head and pulled Peridot's sword out of her gemstone. Axinite dashed towards Alexandrite, but the larger gem used her left three arms to block her attack. Alexandrite summoned Garnet's gauntlets onto two of her hands and punched Axinite in the face, stunning the shorter gem. In retaliation, Axinite head-butted her in Amethyst's gemstone.

Alexandrite flew back into the river, but she crawled out almost immediately. Lapis tried to restrain Alexandrite using a variety of water chains, but Alexandrite summoned Sardonyx's war hammer and smashed the water chains, reducing them to mere drops of water. Alexandrite summoned Sugilite's flail and threw it at Axinite. The smaller gem was hit with astounding force, and the triple fusion went flying into the nearby walls of the cave.

"You're gonna regret that," said Axinite while holding her face in pain. "Make me," replied Alexandrite with a smug face.

Axinite charged Alexandrite with Jasper's helmet, and Alexandrite tried to hit her with Sardonyx's hammer, but the shorter fusion dodged the attack and flew into the air with Lapis's water wings. Using the height to her advantage, Axinite allowed herself to fall to the ground and roll into Jasper's spin-attack. With Jasper's helmet and the force of her spin-attack, Axinite rammed into Alexandrite. Alexandrite defused Sardonyx's hammer into Pearl's spear and Garnet's gauntlets before fusing Pearl's spear with Amethyst's whip to create Opal's bow. Using the bow, Alexandrite fired a barrage of energy arrows at Axinite. Axinite, thinking quickly, summoned a thick wall of ice to block the attacks.

Alexandrite charged Axinite, and the two gems grabbed the others hands. With each fusion possessing six hands, they found themselves in a stalemate. Alexandrite unveiled her second mouth and attempted to breath fire on the smaller fusion, but Axinite headbutted her with Jasper's helmet. Alexandrite fell backwards, and Axinite stabbed the larger fusion with Peridot's short sword.

Alexandrite screeched in pain, and she retaliated by stabbing Axinite with her spear. Axinite fell backwards, and she summoned a series of water spheres. The smaller fusion transformed the shapes of water into thin blades of water, which she telekinetically threw at Alexandrite. Alexandrite ducked and dodged the blades, but Axinite telekinetically curved them upwards, and the blades slammed into the ceiling stalactites, causing them to fall on Alexandrite. Alexandrite summoned Amethyst's whip and Garnet's gauntlets and flagellated and punched the stalactites.

Axinite growled angrily and summoned eight water chains that burst from the nearby river. Rather than targeting Alexandrite's chest, she used each chain to grab and immobilize Alexandrite's limbs.

Steven ran from the wide entrance of Jasper's room to Amethyst's room. Steven heard the crashes and explosions a few minutes ago, but he couldn't be sure where in the temple they were taking place, who was involved, and if Jasper's room was located far away enough. Finally, Steven couldn't take knowing his family was in danger.

Steven transformed his mild run into a full-on sprint. He know this was a bad pace to keep if he had to go Amethyst's room directly, but he knew a shortcut Peridot and Amethyst had taught him if he was in danger that involved cutting through Lapis's room.

Steven sprinted out of the yellow stone tunnel that separated Jasper's room from Garnet's. Rather than turn left towards Amethyst's room, he turned right and began running towards Peridot's room, where he found a gap in the walls, about five-to-seven feet wide at the base. Just as Garnet taught him to do during evasive combat missions, Steven turned towards the wall, almost as if he was going to run head-on into it, brushed his dominant right foot to the side in front of his left foot, held his arms out at an adjacent 45 degree angle, and rolled into a sideways slide, where he transitioned back into a roll through the gap.

Steven fell through the gap expertly. Amethyst's knowledge about the temple's layout and Garnet's evasive techniques allowed Steven to quickly maneuver through the temple like no one knew. He really had matured, physically and emotionally, a lot since he first met Lapis. Since he first summoned his weapon actually...

Ignoring that train of thought, Steven focused at the task at hand and rolled down the slope into a small, blue tunnel that led directly into Lapis's room. 'Almost there' Steven thought. 'I'm so close to finding Amethyst and Jasper and the others'

Steven skidded to a halt in front of the wall. He turned left, started sprinting again and arrived at a door with four gemstones on it: one blue, for Lapis; one pink, for Steven; one green, for Peridot; and one purple for Amethyst. The other three gems didn't know about this door, whether Amethyst didn't tell them purposefully or intentionally, so they only had four gem's installed in it.

In one swift motion, Steven lifted his shirt up, exposing the rose quartz gem he inherited from his mother where his belly button should be, and his button flushed a rosy red, before the door opened, allowing Steven to sprint through.

Steven only got four steps out the door and into Lapis's room when he noticed something terrifying: Axinite, the colossal fusion of Lapis, Jasper and Pearl, was fighting Alexandrite, the even more massive fusion of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl.

Steven stared in shock as Axinite summoned eight chains of water from Lapis's nearby river to restrain Alexandrite. Steven wanted to tell them, to scream and cry at them, to stop fighting each other...but he couldn't, not when his family was fighting each other. Steven and the other gems had worked so hard to keep this family whole, together and united. He couldn't stand the thought of what happened between them earlier...how Lapis imprisoned Jasper as Malachite...how Peridot and Jasper tried to attack the original trio of gems...how Garnet fought Jasper, both recently and at the invasion a year ago. The very thought of all these events made Steven want to vomit, and the very idea that they were all manifested in his two trios of 'moms' fighting each other made him sick. Steven simply looked in shock at the two gems.

Alexandrite tried to struggle as a ninth water chain grabbed her neck. She tried to struggle against it, before flinging her whole head to the side to break its bond. During this movement of her head, she saw Steven, on his knees in the gravel with tears in his eyes.

"Steven!!" cried Alexandrite. Axinite turned her head 90 degrees and saw Steven. Axinite's concentration broke as she looked at Steven, and the water chains holding Alexandrite's neck and two of her right arms disappeared. Taking advantage of Axinite's sudden loss of focus, Alexandrite jumped forward and slammed her head into Axinite's neck. The smaller gem instantly lost her breath, and Alexandrite summoned Garnet's gauntlets on her two unrestrained hands, before smashing her fists into Axinite's head, smashing the glass visor on Jasper's helmet.

Steven, shocked by sudden motion, looked away from the horror. Axinite got up from her feet and growled, before jumping at Alexandrite. "Steven! RUN!" she cried as Alexandrite kicked her left leg.

Axinite let out a groan of pain before jumping off Alexandrite. Axinite flew away on Lapis's wings and summoned two more water chains to restrain Alexandrite's freed arms, pulling the larger fusion towards the river in the process.

Axinite menacingly smiled as Alexandrite's shins hit two boulders, causing her to trip. The fusion instantly tried to get up by pulling herself up on her knees, but the water chains restraining all of her six arms pulled her to her stomach.

Steven ran towards Axinite and Alexandrite, now with his shield summoned, and chucked it at the former fusion. She brushed it off like it was nothing, and continued pulling Alexandrite closer to the water. At the last second before the water consumed her, Alexandrite used her fire breath to disintegrate the three water chains binding her right arms. Alexandrite tried to pull herself back up on the shore, with everything below her diaphragm now submerged in water, but it proved ineffective, and the rest of her body was pulled underwater.

"Alexandrite!!" cried Steven as he felt his knees weakening. "Please," he said as he turned to Axinite, "stop this!!"

Suddenly, a massive purple flail that Steven recognized as Sugilite's burst through the water and wrapped itself around Axinite's waist, before its head slammed into her jaw. Axinite was stunned and caught off guard, and didn't have time to react before she herself was being pulled underwater.

Steven realized what was happening: Alexandrite had access to Sardonyx, Opal, and Sugilite's signature weapons, so she used Sugilite's long range flail to pull Axinite underwater with herself. 

"Stop!" cried Peridot through Axinite as the fusion was getting dragged to the water, "if we just release the water chains, Alexandrite won't get pulled under anymore, and neither will we!!"

"We need to do this to stop her!" replied Jasper through Axinite. Axinite herself had summoned Lapis's water wings, and she was flying against the pull of Sugilite's flail around her legs and chest.

"In order to defeat her, we must do this!!" cried Lapis through the fusion.

And with that, Axinite was promptly dragged underwater. "Axinite!!" screamed Steven as the smaller fusion went under. He ran over to the edge of the river, but a brilliant white light emerged from it.

Suddenly, a massive white fusion burst from it. It possessed all the gemstones from all seven Gems. And it roared with the ferocity of Alexandrite.

"You can't keep us under here forever," it cried with Alexandrite's voice. "Yes we can!" it cried with Axinite's voice.

"Steven, get out of here!" it cried through Lapis's voice.

"We won't let this thing risk your life!" it cried in Garnet's voice.

At that moment, Steven understood what was happening. Axinite was keeping Alexandrite captive in a massive forced fusion.

The fusion was incredibly large, about three times larger then Alexandrite. It had long, messy white hair. Its skin was a shade of blue so pale it was almost white, with many sky-colored and orange stripes lining its back and front. It had seven eyes in its head, each one the color of its components gemstones: one orange for Jasper; one red for Ruby; one dark blue for Lapis; one light blue for Sapphire; one green for Peridot; one white for Pearl; and one purple for Amethyst. It had four legs, and ten arms, creating a total of fourteen limbs; more than Alexandrite and Axinite's total number of limbs combined.

"You can't keep us like this," it shouted in Pearl's voice. "We will find a way out!"

Suddenly, the creature began to change, and its extra body parts compressed together; its four legs fused together to create two legs, its seven eyes fused together to create one gold-brown eye and one black eye, and its ten arms combined into six.

"Alexandrite!" cried Steven "Axinite! You gotta get out of there!"

Suddenly, in a throaty, overlapping voice that was neither Alexandrite's, nor Axinite's, but all seven Gems talking simultaneously, the fusion said.

"We are neither! We...are...Spectrolite!"

Spectrolite burst from the river and slammed into the ceiling. The sheer force of this caused most of the ceiling to fall down instantly, with more rubble descending as Spectrolite fell back down. "Steven!" said the gargantuan fusion with the voice of Opal, "we'll try to hold her down by crushing the ceiling on us. In the meantime, get out of here!"

Steven hesitantly nodded in agreement, before he turned around and ran. Suddenly, a piece of rock fell in front of his path, blocking him from running back to the entrance. The floor around the river began to collapse and, in desperation, Steven created a bubble around himself. The floor broke, and he plummeted into the river just as the rest of the ceiling came down on Spectrolite and dragged her to the river as well.

____________________

Steven was floating around the river for only a few seconds when he heard Spectrolite say to herself in Amethyst and Peridot's overlapping voices, "where does this river lead?"

Spectrolite instantly replied in Jasper's voice with a hoarse "the ocean", and Lapis replied through Spectrolite with a both fearful and annoyed "this is just like Malachite, but worse."

___________________________

Spectrolite burst free from the ocean, with Steven floating to the beach in his bubble. He released his bubble, crawled towards the shore in front his home, the Crystal Temple, and watched as Spectrolite began internally struggling.

"Keep it together," grumbled Spectrolite through Axinite's voice. Suddenly, the fusion began to get ripped apart, and it defused into Axinite and Alexandrite. Axinite then defused into Lapis, Peridot and Jasper upon impact with the ground, and Alexandrite into Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst. Garnet herself began to defuse into Ruby and Sapphire from the strain of being Spectrolite, but she pulled through.

The Gems, all washed up on the shore, all equally exhausted, all began staring at their opponents from mere minute ago before Lapis's room caved in. No one bothered to fight anymore. Whatever they were fighting about previously, it wasn't worth this.


	13. Chapter 13: Azurite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is set between Chapters 9 and 10.

*(Set between the events of Chapter's Ten and Eleven)*  
\-------------------------------------  
"Alright," said the recently reformed Garnet as the family meeting commenced, "now that we know that Corrupted Gems can fuse, I am making it law that Gems can only leave to other Corrupted Gem populated areas if they are in at least groups of two."

The Gems were in various stages of listening: Jasper is largely paying attention, but distracted by the sword Pearl found in the strawberry fields that was now proudly displayed on the counter; Pearl and Peridot were listening intently, but Peridot was screwing together two handheld walkie talkies she made for Lapis and Amethyst; Lapis was passed out asleep, and Amethyst was only half paying attention, having now started twirling her hair.

Pearl glared at Lapis and Amethyst, and Peridot shook the ocean gem awake while Garnet snapped her fingers to get Jasper and Amethysts attention.

"Listen you two," she said while glaring at them. She turned to the snoring hydrokinetic Gem, before asking "can someone wake Lazuli up."

Amethyst and Peridot each grabbed one of Lapis's shoulders and gently shook her. The dark blue Gem snapped back to attention, before Garnet continued.

"This is a very serious matter. Now, some townsfolk, particularly in the northern parts of Beach City, and even some citizens of southwestern Empire City have reported seeing a Gem Monster with a pink and green gemstone in its chest. Pearl and I checked the other day, and descriptions match Watermelon Tourmaline."

Amethyst gently and quietly raised her hand, before asking "Didn't we already imprison Watermelon Tourmaline?"

"We did. And I sent Jasper and Lapis to the Burning Room to make sure."

"So...what are we dealings with," asked Peridot.

"Excellent question. Since we know that all Corrupted Gems are remnant, mutated individuals left over from the Great Gem War, I think that this was another Watermelon Tourmaline."

"And,"'said Pearl, "the same applies to the Cave Monster we fought several months ago."

"The one that we originally fought underground?" Asked Amethyst.

"That's the one," replied Garnet.

"So..." Jasper said as she brought herself to her feet, "what does this mean for our current missions."

"As you know," said Pearl as she brought herself to her feet, "since our group doubled in size, we have the opportunity to split ourselves up into two groups of three or three groups of two. This will help us if we have to track down both monsters. Peridot, Lapis and I will go into down to see if anyone saw anymore Gem monsters. Last I heard, Watermelon Tourmaline was headed for the desert. Jasper, taken Garnet and Amethyst and go find her."

Garnet, while definitely annoyed that Jasper was addressed by Pearl instead of her, still continued. "Steven," said the stoic fusion, "you can either go with Jasper, Amethyst and I to the desert, or go with the others into town."

"If I go with Pearl and the others," asked Steven from the nearby sofa as he fiddled with his fingers, "I won't have to fight, right?"

"Affirmative," said Jasper as she sat down next to him. "You won't be expected to fight at all."

"Well," said Steven to Jasper, "then I want to go with you, Garnet and Amethyst."  
\--------------------------------------------  
The four Gems all trudged through the desert, each with their weapon drawn: Garnet with her gauntlets; Jasper with her crash helmet; Amethyst with her whip; and Steven with his shield.   
"So," said Amethyst as they neared the top of their current hill, "is this where you two formed Sunstone to fight the escaped Desert Glass."

Garnet was slightly caught off guard by the unexpected question about fusion, but Jasper, who was directly in front of Amethyst, answered instantly. "Yes, this is where Garnet and I fought the Desert Glass after it escaped with a variety of other Corrupted Gem Monsters."  
"Why do you ask?" Said Garnet.

"Because," said Amethyst as she awkwardly and nervously fiddled with her thumbs, "well...Ametrine isn't nearly as powerful as Sugilite or Sunstone, but Sugilite still isn't as stable as we want her to be."

"Hey, squirt," said Jasper as she placed a hand on her fellow Quartz's shoulder, "Sunstone is strong and all, but we can make Ametrine work if we have to."

Amethyst smiled at this, but Steven asked his purple friend "Who's Ametrine? Isn't she the fusion of you and Jasper."

"The one and only shrimp," said Jasper as she playfully punched him in the shoulder. "Cool!" cried Steven. "What's her weapon?"

"Remember when we formed Amazonite and she summoned a slingshot made from Amethysts whip and my helmet," said the orange Gem.

"Yeah."

"Well, it's kinda like that, but rather than launching Peridot's sword, we throw balls of electricity. Amazonite herself used something like that."

"Wait," said Garnet in a hushed voice. "I'm picking up something with my future vision." She turned around three times to see anything around her, before Amethyst brought her ear to the sand. "Garnet's right," said the purple Quartz, "it's blurry because of the sand, but I can sense two huge things up ahead."

"Jasper," said Garnet authoritatively, "put Steven on your shoulders. Steven, see if you can find anything."

Steven nodded in agreement, before jumping into Jaspers hands. Jasper threw him up in the air, and Steven landed on the orange Gems shoulders. Jasper partially hunched down and walked towards the top of the hill, and Steven peaked up beyond the hill.

"Jasper," he hissed, "I see Watermelon Tourmaline. And some kind of hermit crab type rock monster."

"Steven," said Garnet as she ran to the top of the hill, "that's the Cave Monster. Don't make a sound. Just ease down."

Steven slowly and silently crawled down the hill, the same way Pearl taught him. Eventually, six feet from the top of the hill, Steven stopped crawling away and simply rolled from the top of the hill. He stopped when he hit Garnet, who picked him up with her gauntlets and jumped away to the base of the hill.

Garnet, Jasper, Amethyst and Steven crouched near each other. Amethyst quickly asked, "Garnet, you're the leader. What do we do?"

"Jasper," she said, "get ready to fuse. Sunstone might be able to defeat both the Cave Monster and Watermelon Tourmaline, but only if we fight them fast enough."

Garnet was no more done with the last syllable when ten objects burst from the nearby sand. Each objects formed into smaller, more mobile versions of the Cave Monster. Watermelon Tourmaline peeked its head from over the mountain, and it's eyes started glowing green.

"Garnet!" cries Amethyst, "Watermelon Tourmaline's here, and the Cave Monster's producing offspring to help fight with it."

"Steven," said Jasper as she picked him up and brought him to her eye level, "only help Amethyst if needed. Try to stay out of trouble."

"But I wanna help," he said while his rose quartz gemstone started glowing.

"You can," said Jasper as her crash helmet appeared on her head, "but try to avoid unnecessary danger."

"Amethyst," said Garnet as the stoic fusion warriors scarlet gemstones began to glow red, "keeping Steven safe is your secondary priority; he can defend himself with his shield. Until then, fight the offspring while Jasper and I fuse to form Sunstone."

"Alright," said Jasper as her Gem started glowing, "let's fuse."

Garnet ran towards Jasper as Amethyst and Steven summoned their weapons. Jasper plucked Garnet from midair and twirled her around, the scarlet Gems feet never touching the hot sand due to the height difference, and the singular vermillion, orange-red color of Sunstone filled the area.

Two of the Cave Monster Offspring came at Steven, but he threw his shield at one, knocking it off balance, and dodge-jumped to the right as the other launched two rock spikes. The two charged him, but Stevens shield rebounded back to him, and he blocked their attacks.

Sunstone formed, in all of her massive, orange, grey-haired, four-armed, muscular glory. The massive, thresh-way fusion lunged towards Watermelon Tourmaline, but the Cave Monster lunged at her and deflected the fusion.

Amethyst and Steven stopped what they were doing to look up at Watermelon Tourmaline, who hovered down to the Cave Monster. A pale blue light consumed them both, and in an instant, Steven, Amethyst and Sunstone all realized the two were fusing.

Paraiba Tourmaline formed from the pale blue burst of light. It had four legs and no arms, but it used two of them as legs, and it's two Paraiba gemstones were located in the center and lower half of its watermelon patterned chest. It's back was made up of a rock cylinder, but it inflated so it's back blew up like a puffer fish, complete with green and pink coloring and blue spikes emerging from it.

Amethyst was pulled out of her amazement at the fusion by the remaining eight offspring charging at her. She dash rolled into two of them, knocking them into the sand. One of them hit a third, causing the thirds shell to crack. She threw the damaged third offspring at a fourth, swung her whip at a fifth, and tossed it at a sixth.

Sunstone swung her two left arms at Paraiba, but the Corrupted Fusion used his massive right claw to block the punch, before jabbing his left claw into Sunstones face. Sunstone summoned two balls of fire in his upper hands and threw them at Paraiba, but the fire hardly phased the massive fusion.

Paraiba leaped at Sunstone, and fired three spikes from its back into the massive fusion. Sunstone was caught off guard, and she crashed into the nearby hill, knocking sand in every direction and confusing Amethyst and Stevens fight against the offspring. Paraiba jabbed it's left lower leg claw into Sunstones leg, and head butted it. The Quartz fusion instantly defused, and Jasper, Ruby and Sapphire were left there.Thinking quickly, Sapphire and Ruby grabbed each other's hands, and Garnets light appeared in a sphere around them both. The de facto leader of the Crystal Gems appeared on her back, before she jumped back on her feet.

"Amethyst! Jasper!" she cried, "Form Ametrine, now!! Sunstones compromised, and Steven and I can take the offspring!"

Amethyst ran over and helped Jasper to her feet, and the two Quartz's nodded encouragingly at each other. Both of their gemstones began flowing vibrantly as Jasper grabbed Amethyst by her hip and shoulder, twirled her around, and threw her in the air. Jasper leaped in the air just as Amethyst reached terminal velocity and started to fall again, and the two soldiers met in midair. An orange and purple blob of light formed in midair, and it formed the muscular warrior Ametrine before she hit the ground.

Ametrine's muscular build clearly reflected her Quartz status, and her hair was a wild light grey mess with the left side being shaved off. She was dressed in a vibrant neon purple and orange suit on the right and left sides respectively, with the sleeves cut off, a black and yellow stripes combat shirt underneath, skintight dark grey pants with metallic platings on the far left and far right sides, and a tattoo of a ring on the back and palm of her left hand.

Ametrine jumped for the damaged shell of the Cave Monster Offspring that Amethyst wounded, and she ripped it off the beast before summoning her slingshot, and throwing the shell at Parabia Tourmaline with her slingshot. It hit the monster snack in the face, but had virtually no effect.

Garnet lunged into the crowd of offspring, and Steven started jabbing the outermost offspring of the circle with the edge of his shield. Pretty soon, the two Gems were fighting back to back, both damaging the offspring but having difficulties permanently killing them.

Parabia kicked at Ametrine, but the Quartz dodged it. While in midair, Parabia punched Ametrine, and the smaller Gem went flying into the crowd of Offspring.

"Garnet," cried Steven, "their hide is too tough. We can't beat them!!"

"Ametrine," said Garnet, "quickly, we have to fuse."

Ametrine stood up from the sandy crater in which she landed, and ran over to Garnet as their gemstones glowed.

"This is gonna be a big one," said Garnet through gritted teeth. "Steven!" she yelled as she flipped her head around, "we might be able to defeat all of them as Azurite. Until then, just hold them off a little bit longer!"

Steven nodded in agreement, before jabbing at two offspring, sidestepping away from a third one, and using a fourth one as a launching pad to jump away from them.

Ametrine reached Garnet, picked up the smaller fusion, and twirled her around. The two grab each other, hand in hand, while Garnet waves her free hand above her head and Ametrine runs her free hand through the profile of her hair. The two of them join both their hands together, and a blue sphere of energy and light appears around both double fusions.

Azurite is Kornerupine size's; that is to say, she is as big as Alexandrite, possibly a few feet taller. Azurite is almost completely a deep, cobalt colored blue with patches of red, purple, and orange along her waist, arms and spine. Her legs from the knee down are all black, with the exception of a few light patches of sky blue on the toes. Her hair is a diverse collection of colors and styles, with the left side being a very light shade of grey that borders Jasper's white and fluffy mane, the right side being black, part of the right side around the scalp being shaved off, horizontal purple streaks in the middle third of the hair, and curls all along the upper half of the hair that spread out into straight patches in the second half. 

Azurite let out a hellish roar at Parabia Tourmaline, before the latter summoned at least a dozen more Gem Cave Monster Offspring. Azurite wiped all of them out, as well as the ones her components were fighting earlier, in one swift, low kick. Azurite summoned Sugilite's flail and Ametrine's slingshot to her left and right pairs of hands, before scooping all the destroyed offspring into the slingshot and throwing them at Parabia. The throw had almost no effect, but before Parabia could prepare a counter arrack, Azurite whacked the Corrupted Fusion across the side of the head with the mace of Sugilite's flail.

Parabia ducked at the last second, so the full impact didn't get to her but she was still knocked to the side. The Tourmaline Corrupted Gem tried to rush Azurite, but the quadruple fusion combined Sugilite and Ametrine's weapons into a singular, massive chain with a metallic hook on the end. Azurite jumped out of the way, dodged the attack, and threw her chain around the monster in the process. Azurite jumped in the air, and swung the chain forward with godly strength, sending the pale blue monster into the sky. Azurite landed on the ground, but no sooner did she do so that she jumped back off just as Parabia started to fall to the ground. Azurite collided with Parabia if midair, slammed her shoulder into the corrupted Gems throat, and summoned one of Sunstone's fire balls onto her middle left hand, which she then crammed down the monsters throat. Azurite and Parabia both fell to the ground, but Parabia exploded upon impact on a fiery combustion. Azurite approached the two tiny Gems, placed them on Ruby and Sapphire's gemstones, and defused, leaving Garnet with the gems, and Jasper and Amethyst ready to accept hugs from the running Steven.

"You guys!" he yelled with a proud and childish enthusiasm, "that was awesome!!"

"That," said Amethyst between breathes, "was probably the most powerful fusion...I've ever participated in."

"Let's get these back to the others," said Garnet as she placed the gems in a bubble. "I'm sure everyone else will be glad to here our mission was a success."

And with that, Jasper placed Steven on her shoulders and set off with Amethyst and Garnet to go back to their home.


	14. Chapter 14: Garnet vs Jasper Alternate Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A different possibility to the fight between Garnet and Jasper earlier in the fic.

Garnet and Jasper wrestled on the floor as the other five gems ran up to them. Pearl jumped in front of Jasper, but the larger gem knocked her away with ease. Steven summoned his shield and threw it as Garnet. It bounced off her face, hit the nearby stone wall and rebounded into Jasper, thus throwing the latter gem off balance.

Amethyst jumped between Garnet and Jasper as Garnet charged at the orange gem, but Jasper knocked her away at the last second. Garnet punched at Jasper, but Jasper leaned her head down to block Garnet's attack. The force of Garnet's punch against Jasper's helmet caused a miniature shockwave that sent the gems flying back. Pearl summoned two spears, before throwing one at Jasper. Jasper blocked it with the rectangular front of her helmet, but Amethyst summoned her whip, which she wrapped around Jasper to immobilize her.

Lapis created an arm of water from a nearby pool and wrapped it around Garnet's torso as Steven grabbed onto her leg. Jasper and Garnet tried to struggle, but couldn't from both exhaustion and pain.

"Enough!" cried Steven as he held his hands out defensively. "Stop fighting you two!"

"Stop this madness!" cried Pearl as she held her spear to Jasper, then at Garnet. Steven let go of Garnet, and she fell to her knees and Jasper followed shortly. "I'm done," said the exasperated orange gem. Suddenly, Garnet kicked out at Lapis, causing the blue gem to fall on her stomach, and Garnet jumped up and lunged at Jasper while activating her electrokinesis.

With a surge of electricity flowing threw her gauntlet, Garnet grabbed Jaspers face and grounded her. Jasper's back viciously slammed into the stone, cold ground. This, combined with the electricity surging through Garnet's strike and the damage dealt to Jasper throughout the fight, led to Jasper poofing back into her gem.

But instead of one gem, two gems fell on the ground where Jasper was moments ago; one, the slender orange diamond-shaped gem where her nose should be, and another, a four-pronged star that no one had seen before.

All six remaining gems looked in awe as the two gems led to only one conclusion: Jasper, the Quartz-type gem that they had taken in six months ago, was a fusion. And a perma-fusion at that, just like Garnet.

Stunned at this revelation, Amethyst, Pearl and Steven all looked at the two gems in shock, but Garnet, Peridot and Lapis all looked at one-another, all with the same thought: her secret was out. Finally, Amethyst, noticing her leaders expressin, turned her whole body towards Garnet and away from the gems yelling "You knew!! You knew, Garnet! All of you!"

Lapis and Peridot blushed awkwardly at the situation as Garnet explained: "Malaya Quartz and Citrine are both Quartz gems, but both are...imperfect. Both emerged five hundred years after they were supposed to. Both are ground troopers of different classes. They are close friends. I know them personally from my experience with them as Sunstone."

"And mine as Malachite," piped in Lapis. "And mine as Bloodstone," said Peridot while scratching her head.

"They were companions," explained Lapis, "and they feared their own weakness. They were defective Quartz gems, so they fused out of fear of their weakness. But, she was afraid of what you guys would think...what Steven would think."

Garnet grabbed Malaya and Citrine's gems and bubbled them. The group stood there, but Peridot's balled fists were shaking. "Why did you do it!" she screamed at Garnet. "You didn't have to poof her back into her gems! We could have reached an agreement!"

"She was out of control!"

"No!" screamed Peridot, "You were! You barbarically attacked her and tried to cover it and rationalize it because she annoys you."

"That's enough!" screamed Garnet as the other gems watched in horror. "She's a danger and she needed to be pu-"

Garnet was interrupted by Peridot grabbing the taller gems face with her Gem-Destabilizer glove. Stunned at the sudden outburst of violence, Pearl, Steven and Amethyst could only watch in horror as Garnet started violently shaking with electricity as her limbs broke apart, similar to what happened on the beach 14 months ago when Jasper arrived on Earth. Eventually, her remains fell to the rock floor and shattered as Sapphire and Ruby's gems remained.

"I'm not sure Jasper was the one that needed to be put down," said Peridot menacingly. Steven, shaking with fear behind a horrified Pearl and Amethyst, looked away from Ruby and Sapphire's gems. Lapis confidentially walked towards Peridot, and the two left the tunnels together. 

_____________________________________________________

Citrine emerged from her gem to find she was in the Burning Room. She was surrounded by dozens of other bubbled gems from a variety of sources: Amethyst, Peridot, Lapis Lazuli and Garnet. Her light, hazelnut-colored hair with multi-colored braids flowed half-way down her back and ended towards the center of her spine. Her yellow dress matched her tan skin perfectly, and the bracelets lining her left arm glowed in the light of the molten lava in the center of the room.

After their injuries at the hand of the fusion, Citrine had retreated back into her gem. She had no idea how long she was out. Remembering how Garnet lunged at her made Citrine grit her teeth, but it reminded her of something else: Malaya had to be nearby. Citrine scanned the room but didn't find Malaya's four-pronged star gemstone anywhere. Citrine ran over to the door of the Burning Room and opened it. Standing before her was Garnet's secret chamber, where she kept the most confidential of gems.

Citrine ran into the room, but its labyrinth-like structure made it hard to find where her friend was. "Malaya!" she cried. Citrine's cry echoed throughout the room, but there was no response. Garnet likely split them up to prevent re-fusion.

Citrine sprinted down the hallways, but found a door that she hadn't previously recognized. Walking backwards, she found the door led into Amethyst's tunnels. Citrine walked through there to find Steven roaming the trails.

"Rose?" asked Citrine questioningly. Steven looked up and gasped at the new gem before running up to her. "Hi Steven," she said affectionately.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Citrine. I'm a Quartz gem."

Steven gasped at the newfound knowledge. He noticed Jasper's gem where her nose should be. "Are you one of the gems that make up Jasper?"

Citrine blushed. "Yeah. Have you seen my friend Malaya?" Citrine held a hand up to her neck and said "She's about yay tall, muscular, wears a skin-tight combat suit, has scarlet skin."

"Nope," said Steven while shaking his head. "Sorry."

"It's not your fault."

Suddenly, both Steven and Citrine heard a voice cry out. "Citrine!! Quartz Child!!"

Citrine gasped, "Steven that must be her." Without another second's hesitation, Citrine jumped over a large boulder in her path and began sprinting towards the maze again. Steven followed shortly. Citrine turned left three times and right twice, but she couldn't find her other half.

"Malaya!!" she cried. Citrine ran in the opposite direction, but stumbled upon a massive stone door with a button in the middle. Steven ran up to her, summoned his shield and threw it at the button. The shield gracefully bounced back at him, and Steven caught it, and the door opened up, revealing a massive chamber of the Burning Room with tunnels of lava flowing through the walls.

Citrine looked across to find a shorter, red-skinned gem with a torn, long-sleeve long-pants skin-tight black combat suit with diamonds embedded on its sides, and a Malaya Quartz gemstone on her shoulder-blade. "Hey kid," she said confidentially. Citrine ran over and jumped at Malaya, pulling her into a big hug. "Wow, don't get so emotional, I've been right here the whole time."

"I was worried I wouldn't see you again," sobbed Citrine into the shorter gems shoulder.

"Well, you found me now, and that's all that matters."

Citrine's facial gemstone and Malay's gemstone on her left shoulder-blade began to glow a brilliant orange and yellow respectively, and both of them transformed into a light that led into one-another. Jasper emerged from the light with Malaya's mace and Citrine's helmet, and their weapons combined. Citrine's helmet became the base of Jasper's crash helmet, and Malaya's mace was the rectangular hump emerging from it.

Jasper had a new design now: rather than having a tan and orange sleeveless shirt, she now had a black, skin-tight combat suit similar to Malaya's with white stripes on it and long sleeves and pant legs. Jasper's hair was also thinner and less messier, exposing Malaya's gemstone.

Jasper turned to Steven and kneeled down to his level. "Hey kid," she said in an assuring tone. Steven jumped at Jasper and pulled her into a hug before he started sobbing. "I was worried I'd never see you again!"

"Hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay," whispered Jasper. She lifted Steven away from his hug and faced him. "I'm back now. It's okay. I'm back now."

"Why did Garnet have to fight you?"

Jasper sighed. "I was out of line, Steven. But so was she. She didn't have the right to unfuse me. She already won...just like I did, almost a year ago when I arrived on this planet."

"What are you gonna do now?"

Jasper led out an exasperated sigh. "I don't know Ste-man. I truly don't know."

______________________________________________

Ruby was the first to emerge from her gem. She often was whenever Garnet was injured, but there were a few exceptions. Ruby awoke in her personalized room, which she almost never used. Her room was often fused with Sapphire's to create the Burning Room, but such was not the case.

Ruby got up from the bed that Pearl had set her in. No doubt Amethyst or Lapis had brought Sapphire's gem to her own room. Ruby jumped up from her bed and ran towards the door separating her and Sapphire's room. She placed her palm on it, and the door opened. As it opened, an intense rush of cold chilled Ruby to the bone. This was definitely Sapphire's room.

Ruby strolled through the snowy tunnel that led into Sapphire's quarters, leaving a burning footprint on the frozen gravel. Ruby's personal heat caused by her thermo-regulation abilities equalized with the ice and snow of Sapphire's room. Ruby made her way to the door on the opposite end of the tunnel and pressed the button in the middle of it. The door opened, revealing a room made of ice with a bed on it where Sapphire's gemstone had been placed. Almost immediately, Ruby heard Steven cry out something.

"Ruby! Sapphire! Jasper's reformed!"

As if on que, Sapphire's gem began glowing a light blue and she emerged from it, with a thin dress with white and navy blue lace tied around it. "Sapphire!" cried out the red gem.

Ruby rushed to her lover's aid and helped her to her feet. "I'm okay, I'm okay," replied the blue gem. "I just need to get on my feet."

Sapphire grabbed the wooden ledge of her cot and pulled herself up. She gently kissed Ruby on the cheek as the later began to tear up and said with a sigh, "thank you for watching over me Ruby."

Ruby allowed the warm tears to stream down her cheeks. She smiled and lifted up her lover in a bridal-carrying position. As Ruby gently placed her lips on Sapphire's neck, both were consumed in a brilliant pink light from which Garnet emerged. Garnet's latest design was her most colorfully balanced: Sapphire's triangular gem was located on her left palm, and it was now blue instead of red. The left side of Garnet's outfit was pink and light red, contrasting with Sapphire's gemstone on in the same side. The right side of Garnet's outfit was made up of various shades of blue, with Ruby's red gemstone on her right palm.

"It feels good to be me," she said quietly while looking down at the contrasting colors of her gems. Garnet turned her attention to the Steven's voice on the other end of her door and raced out.

**Author's Note:**

> I admit this isn't my best. I wrote it in, like, 2016.


End file.
